As a Winged Demigod
by MiaHominaTelosWrit
Summary: Percy[Scale], Annabeth[Hoot], and Nico[Nyx] are the mutants The Flock set free. Thalia finds them in Central Park. Idea from BobbyAwesome. Slightly AU. Possible OOC due to circumstance. IGNORE THE AUTOUR"S NOTE IN CHAPTER 8. NOT TAKING IT DOWN SO PEOPLE CAN REVIEW Cover art by: Inglorious Machina
1. Break Free

**Hoot=Annabeth**

 **Scale= Percy**

 **Nyx= Nico**

Hoot was laying down in an uncomfortable dog-like curled up position inside her metal crate. The dog crate wasn't even tall enough for her to sit up without bonking her head on the barred roof. She opened her eyes and sighed.

"Hoot, you 'wake?" one of her friends, Scale, called from the cage across the narrow white aisle in the completely white antiseptic filled room. Hoot nodded, effectively causing her uncut blonde hair to fall into her grey eyes. Hoot at up in a hunched position and rolled her shoulder blades trying to stretch her owl wings to the best of her ability. Scale was trying his hardest to break free of the confines of his cage.

"It won't work," Hoot told him. Scale shook his head.

"Has too!" he shouted. Hoot sighed and slumped back against the bars, hitting her wings in the process. Scale was a strange creature. Overly protective of both Hoot and Nyx, the few year younger nocturnal bat-mutant. Scale had wings of his own. They were much thinner than Hoot's and more scaly than Nyx's. As far as the three could tell, Scale was some kind of dragon-human hybrid.

Hoot visibly jumped when she heard the door open.

"We won't hurt you," a girl who looked to be about the same age as Hoot and Scale said. One of the boys with her immediately got to work picking the locks on the three cages. When he got to Nyx cage. Scale growled. Hoot looked at him warningly. " _Scale_."

Scale backed down only slightly, still ready to pummel someone at the first sign of attack. The strange boy gently shook Nyx. Who opened his eyes and immediately closed them in reaction to the harsh fluorescent lights.

Hoot stumbled over and helped Scale get Nyx out. The twelve or so boy could barely see in the bright lights, being part bat.

Once the odd rescues had them outside and a fair distance away from the lab, Scale wanted an explanation.

"Explain," he demanded his eyes flashing red in anger.

" _Scale,"_ Hoot warned. It wouldn't do them any good for Scale to fry these kind strangers into human-kabobs. Scale still didn't trust them. Why would he? Fourteen years in a cage being experimented on every day would puncture anyone's trust-skills.

"I'm Angel," the youngest girl said. "And we should probably blow this joint."

Hoot agreed with the girl entirely and helped Scale escort Nyx out. Just in time for the building to explode into a big firebomb.

The two that had picked the locks high fived.

"Awesome!" they shouted.

"You did that?" Hoot asked. They nodded.

The 6 strangers introduced themselves as Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Iggy, Fang, and Max.

"So, can you guys fly?" Max, the oldest, asked.

Hoot nodded, "A little."

They had only learned how to fly enough for experiments. That was barely enough to do much. And Nyx wouldn't be able to see well enough to fly during the day.

"Why are you squinting? Are you blind? Is it the Whitecoats fault? Who am I kidding? Of course it is! Those evil scientist are the absolute worst!" The motor-mouth Nudge would have kept going if Iggy hadn't plugged his ears and Fang hadn't covered her mouth with his hand.

"I am _not_ blind," Nyx told her. "I just can't see right now."

"What?" Max asked.

"Not your concern," Scale growled.

"Chill out," Max told him. "I'm not about to do anything to you or your friends. What're your names anyway?

"I'm Scale, She's Hoot, and the little one is Nyx."

"Little?" Nyx asked.

"Smaller than me, aren't cha?"

Nyx resigned to Scale's term of "little."

"So, let's go."

The now enlarged group began walking. Scale still didn't trust these strangers. If they made one wrong move he _would_ use his fire breath to burn them to crisp. He had harmed enough white coats to protect Nyx and Hoot.

They came to fork in the road with a creepy ally on one side.

"We're leaving," Scale decided immediately. "I don't trust them!"

Hoot and Nyx nodded and took the path that followed the darkened ally.

And somehow they made it to New York.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading. This is just the first chapter. The 2** **nd** **is already half-way done. Hopefully you enjoyed this. They should get longer but I needed some kind of prologue. Review. Tell me what you think. Thanks!**


	2. As a What?

Hoot, Nyx, and Scale found a place to crash. Nyx took the night watch, using his superb hearing to help with his blurred vision. He was pretty much a human with bat senses and wings. He got into a low branch and hung upside down naturally. This turned out to be an extraordinarily comfortable position. He still managed to stay awake until daylight when Hoot and Scale awoke. Then he fell asleep just long enough to start having dreams about the horrors of the science lab he grew up in and then he was woken up by a scream of

"Grover! Come here!" it didn't sound like Hoot or Scale so he fell right of his branch, allowing Scale to help him up immediately.

Nyx rubbed his eyes in a futile attempt to see better. He managed to shoot a glare in the direction of the spiky haired girl responsible for his tumble.

" _They smell like demigods and something else, Thalia,"_ Grover said in Ancient Greek. The trio didn't recognize the language as foreign because they understood it fully.

"Come with us," Thalia demanded. Scale glared and moved in front of Hoot and Nyx.

"No," he told her. He really wished he had some way to hide the blue-ish yellow surrounding his sea green eye slit. Thalia didn't bring it up so he wasn't going to. For some reason his dragon eyes weren't as weak as many were. He figured it was just luck.

"You're demigods. Powerful demigods, you won't be safe here. You _**need**_ to come with us."

"We're what now?" Hoot asked, her blonde hair bouncing slightly.

"You know half god, half human?"

Hoot was convinced that this girl was completely insane. Scale was ahead of this thought process and kept glaring waiting to see if the girl would attack.

Grover thought then was a good time to join in the conversation. "I'm Grover. That's Thalia. What're your names?"

Scale moved his glare to Grover, "Why should we tell you?"

He was more than convinced this was just some test and that they'd be knocked unconscious and wake up in their cages again. Or on a lab table, strapped down.

Scale _hated_ when he was in his cage and either of his friends were gone. He couldn't do anything for them then.

"Come with us, please," Grover asked. Scale shook his head. Grover finally took notice of his eyes.

"What's happening with your eye?" Grover's lack of tact earned him a glare from eight different eyes.

"Nothing," Scale snapped.

"Just come with us," Grover begged.

Scale stepped over to where Nyx was leaning against the tree. And said in a whisper that only his friends could here: "Should we go?"

The agreed that they would follow the two strangers at a distance and bail the minute they perceived one wrong move.

"Fine," Scale told the strangers. "But, if we don't like it, we're leaving."

Scale would find _someplace_ for them to go.

They followed at a distance that only Hoot could really _see_ them. Scale had the vision of a normal human being and Nyx's vision only really worked worth crap at _night_ and even then, it was blurry.

"Are you coming or not!" Thalia yelled and if it wasn't for the three's super-hearing they never would have known she'd even made a sound.

"Get down!" Thalia yelled at them. Scale made sure the Hoot and Nyx were safe even though they didn't see the threat of a teenage girl in an overly girl short skirt and top.

" _Empousa"_ Grover explained when Hoot demanded an explanation for Thalia turning the girl into a pile of dust with just a few arrows. Scale wanted to know where the bow and arrows came from to begin with. And Nyx was too groggy to care.

"That tells us nothing, explain!" Hoot yelled at him.

"It's a monster, they take their problems with the Gods out on demigods by trying to kill them. That's why demigods are much safer not knowing or at camp."

Scale wanted to know who this girl thought she was to tell him where and how he would be _safe_. He hardly knew what that felt like. He figured it was the opposite of painful experiments, a small cage, and having animal DNA. He shook himself out of his unfortunate thoughts when Hoot tapped his shoulder.

"You okay?" she asked. Scale nodded. He had to be strong for her and Nyx.

"Here we are," Thalia said and they walked into Camp Half-Blood.

"Get down!" Grover warned just before a few arrows buzzed over their heads. "Could we not kill the campers?"

"Sorry!" a boy yelled from his position of holding out a bow.

"We need to get you to Chrion," Talia said and they went to a big house where they saw a man with scraggly hair sitting in a wheelchair next to a table playing some sort of game with another man.

"Hi, I'm Chiron, and that's Mr. D. What're your names?"

Scale figured that couldn't really do much harm at this point.

"I'm Scale."

"Hoot."

Nyx was too close to sleep to care.

"That's Nyx," Scale explained and caught him as he nearly fell over trying to go to sleep.

"Welcome to Camp-Half Blood. Until your parents claim you you have to stay in the Hermes' cabin. Grover, Thalia, could you show them around?"

Scale did not like the close quarters of cabin 11 one bit. He thought it felt too much like a cage. And he knew that it was painful whether you were in the cage or not. He just hoped he could protect Hoot and Nyx better here than he could at The School.

 **A/N: I know it's not very good. Sorry.**


	3. Apartish Nightmares

Hoot, Scale, and Nyx lied awake that evening. None of them knew what to think of the events of the few hours or days since they had left the lab. It was a drastic change. And they didn't know if it was for better or for worse.

Hoot was planning she didn't know exactly what. Scale just knew he _had_ to protect his friends. They were more than that. They were the only people he'd ever known long enough to build a relationship with. He trusted them in some weird way and had been through enough torture in his life that he knew how they felt.

"You two awake?" Hoot called to the boys.

"Yeah," they whispered back.

They spent the rest of the night whispering back and forth trying to figure out _where_ they would go if this turned out to be a trap. They only stopped when a cabin mate threw a pillow at them and told them,

"I'd like to sleep!"

The next morning Thalia and Grover were giving the trio a tour of Camp Half-Blood. He didn't go anywhere _near_ as well as everyone had hoped.

"Good morning," Grover told the trio.

Nyx groaned.

"Someone's a grump. Did you guys sleep well?"

"No," the trio muttered darkly. Unfortunately, the amount of unfamiliar people around them made them feel even more trapped than the cages did.

"Nyx, you look like Death. Do you ever sleep?"

"I should be asleep _now_."

Thalia accompanied her questioning look with a phrase Nyx took as an insult, "No human sleeps at one in the afternoon."

" _Maybe_ I'm not human." Nyx turned right around and layed down in the floor of Cabin 11.

"Well, I guess we'll go now, come on," Thalia told the remaining 2/3 of the group she needed to show around. Hoot and Scale looked at each other and reluctantly followed Grover and Thalia around camp.

"What'd he mean he's not human?" Grover asked, tactlessly.

"Nothing," Scale muttered, shifting awkwardly on his feet. "He's just tired."

"You are a _horrible_ liar," Thalia laughed. "None of us are fully human, obviously. But, Nyx didn't mean it like that."

"It's _none_ of your business!" Hoot snapped and turned on her heel dragging Scale with her.

"They're hiding something," Thalia told Grover. "We need to find out what."

Hoot and Scale walked quietly into Cabin 11 where Nyx was sleeping.

"Should we stay here?" Hoot asked Scale. Scale shrugged.

"Where else do we have now? It's here. The lab. Or the middle of nowhere."

A few hours later just before dinner Nyx woke up and they went to the pavilion to eat.

"Why on _Earth_ would I think the Gods for _anything_. They did absolutely nothing for me or my friends! I'm stuck in this stupid place with people I don't know."

Instead of thunder and lighting striking her into oblivion her questioning nature caused her mother to claim her. And owl was floating above her head.

"All hail Hoot, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and weaving."

"Her symbol is an owl," Scale told her. Hoot laughed and sat down.

"You have to move to the same table as your siblings," Luke told her.

Hoot stood up, and sat back down across from Scale.

"These two _are_ my family."

Eventually, they did convince Hoot to sit at table 6.

"Hi, I'm Malcolm a boy that had blonde hair and grey eyes who looked to be a few years older than her said.

"I'm Hoot."

"Why did your dad name you Hoot?"

"My dad?" Hoot asked. "What makes you think I live with him?"

"Well, our mother is a goddess so logic dictates that you live with your mortal father."

"Well, I don't. I live with my two best friends in a science lab in Death Vally. At least we did. We're not sure if we're going back. And I don't know what my so-called mortal father would have named me because I've never met the guy."

Malcolm shifted awkwardly in his seat. "So, you like science?"

"I hate it."

"But, you would learn so much in a science lab!"

"It. Was. Pure. Hell."

Scale came over sensing that Hoot was not enjoying her new company.

"Hi, I'm Scale."

"I'm Malcolm. Where did these names come from?"

"We made them up," Scale explained. Nyx came over as well and Malcolm annoyed him way more than anyone thought possible.

"Nyx is a girl's name," Malcolm pointed out.

"So? I don't care. It's my name."

Nyx solid black orbs were quite intimidating even when he didn't want them to be.

After dinner when everyone else was enjoying the campfire the three were in the woods jumping of of logs trying to make use of their wings that were so weak from years of unused that they could hardly go an inch above the logs.

"Ugh. Stupid whitecoats," Hoot complained. "Give us wings we can't even _use_."

"Maybe if we practice every night?" Scale suggested. Hoot and Nyx didn't understand how he still had an ounce of optimism left in his body. But, they nodded in agreement.

"We may actually need to fly one of these days," Hoot added. "Scale's right for once."

They folded their wings in when the music from the campfire died down and ran as fast as possible to the cabins. Hoot reluctantly went into the Athena cabin. The first time in her entire life she had slept in a room away from the boys. Most teenage girls would be ecstatic. She wanted to cry and scream for them.

 _Scale lay in a cage waiting for the return of Hoot. It'd been much longer than normal._

 _"Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!" he was crying out for her. The owls outside were mocking him. He needed her to return sooner rather than later. She never did. The whitecoats took her who-knows-where. She was as good as dead._

Scale woke up and stayed that way. He had killed her.

 _Hoot couldn't find either of the boys. They weren't in their cages. And there was only so many places in a hospital white-washed room inside and equally hospital white-washed science lab_ _two boys could hide especially when said boys had wings._

 _"Scale? Nyx? It's not funny!" she yelled. "Really guys! Come back!"_

 _They had left her. They really had left her._

 _"Scale! Nyx! Scale! Nyx! Scale! Nyx!"_

"Hoot!" Malcolm yelled and eventually gave up and dumped a bucket of water on her.

"What was _that_ for?" she yelped.

"You've been yelling for Scale and Nyx for the pat hour."

"Where are they?" she growled.

"Cabin 11," Malcolm told her not expecting Hoot to kick off the blankets and tear out of the building faster than he though possible. Hoot slammed the door to Cabin 11 open and saw Nyx and Scale sitting awake. She understood that Nyx would be awake but Scale normally slept through the night.

"What are you doing awake, Scale?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"Nightmare. You?"

"Same," Scale sighed. "I'd rather we were all in the same room."

"We can ask whoever's in charge. We'll never get _any_ sleep if we don't wake up to each other."

"You know they won't allow it," Nyx told the two.

"He's right," Hoot sighed. "But, we can try."

 **A/N: And chapter 3 is by far the longest. Now: should the learn more about their mortal parents? Got anything you want to be in this story. TELL ME**


	4. We Can All Hear You

"Why NOT?" Scale yelled at the top of his lungs. The trio was standing in front of the idiot who was supposedly their _protector_. Scale wanted to know where that so-called protection had been when they were trapped in too-small dog crates and tortured with painful experiments. Oh, yeah, it wasn't around.

"Because, child, it would anger the gods. And cause a war."

"Oh, I should care that they'll be angry when Hoot is being kept up by nightmares and I can't _help?_ Fine!"

Scale's rage was getting stronger and stronger until **SPLASH** , the sound of a wave from the fountain behind Chiron crashing onto the floor and soaking everyone in the room, aside from Scale.

Chiron's fierce glare was reacted with a snarky,

"I'm not sorry to _you, Chiron."_ Scale spat out the name venomously and only a warning look from Hoot preventing Chiron from becoming overcooked dog food.

"I had my suspicions," Chiron merely whispered as a blue three-pronged trident glowed above Scale's head. "All hail Scale, Son of Poseidon, God of Sea."

Chiron did not get the reaction of the normal campers. Instead he got a _very_ disinterested trio and an an angry son of the sea god.

"So, you want to separate us _more_ now? Fine!"

Mentally, Scale thought that this lunatic centaur was lucky he and his friends had _nowhere_ else to go.

The trio left, Scale still fuming in anger.

" _ **Brats**_ ," the trios advanced hearing heard Mr. D. mutter after the door was slammed.

"Hey! Scale!" Thalia called running towards the trio. Scale did _not_ want to deal with her right now but figured he had no choice.

"What?" he growled.

"Chill. All of camp already heard you yelling at Chiron. You're lucky the gods haven't struck you down to death yet. Congrats, by the way," she paused and chanced a look at Hoot and Nyx. "Well, guess you got caught in the crossfire."

"Sorry, Hoot. Sorry, Nyx. I can dry you off?" Scale offered.

"NO!" the two synced. He didn't exactly mean with his _godly_ powers.

"It's time for breakfast. You woke up the whole camp too early. By the way," Thalia glared and punched Scale's shoulder in a way she _thought_ was playfully. Scale thought different. That hit was too close to his wings and it reminded him of that _place._

The whitecoats were always rough. Always forcing the Experiments to endure painful test and getting angry if it didn't go the way they wanted. The crates were the most humane thing there and Scale couldn't remember a time he'd actually _fit_ properly in one. His wings had scars from various objects being thrown to see if they'd go through or hurt him. And his neck was still scarred from when they wanted to see how he reacted to different elements. Scale figured he'd never fully heal from the experiments and torture those whitecoats had forced upon him. All the times they'd grabbed his shoulder to force him in and out of his crate or to pin him down on a lab table came rushing back with Thalia's one thoughtless move.

Scale couldn't think straight. What were they going to do to him? But, it was better him than Hoot or Nyx. They didn't deserve it. His knees buckled and he was on the ground waiting for some electric shock or strike that he knew the whitecoats would record the effects of just because he was different. That was his life.

"Scale!" Thalia shouted. That wasn't right. The whitecoats never used their names. He was Subject _**SCAA01**_ **(1.)** to them. He blinked and looked up and saw the sun and Thalia's face when his eyes came back into focus. "Did I hurt you that bad?"

Scale shook his head. "No. It's nothing. He stood up and put on a false smile. He wasn't that weak he just needed a nap.

"I think I'm just tired. Didn't sleep well last night. First time in our life we've not all been in one room during night."

"Oh, that's why you were yelling at Chiron this morning," Thalia deducted.

"Yeah."

They walked to breakfast and Scale, Nyx, and Hoot reluctantly parted ways. Scale sat in his bench a picked at whatever it was he was eating. He didn't know. It magically appeared. He thought it might be dog food of some kind because that was what he was used to eating. He ate the pellets and drank the water.

"What are you eating?" Malcom asked Hoot. Nyx and Scale heard for certain and of course listened.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"It looks like something I'd feed my dog," another girl at her table chimed in. "I'm Lexi, by the way."

Lexi held out her hand to shake and Hoot flinched away. Lexi sighed and pulled her hand back.

The now separated trip finished eating and met in their training clearing. Nyx nocturnal instincts were kicking in so he climbed into a branch and hung upside down a a few feet away from where the other two would be practicing their flying, falling asleep within seconds.

This wasn't something he'd been allowed at the lab but he found he liked it a lot.

"Are you okay?" Hoot asked as Scale got a few inches off the ground with his scarred dragon wings. Scale nodded.

"I'm fine," Scale bit his lip, the nervous habit revealed his lying if the slight pitch raise of his voice didn't.

"That's not true. What's wrong?"

"Thalia touching my shoulder just brought back some memories. I'm fine. Don't worry."

Hoot sighed. Scale had always been like this. Putting himself before the people he cared about. Hoot knew that he wouldn't talk about it willingly, just get angry and take it out on the people that threatened his friends.

"I get it," Hoot told him as he moved over to sit on the log next to her. She wasn't going to tell him that she was scared of going back _there_ when he was already so down. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Scale shook his head, "No."

Hoot sighed and when the conch shell blew signifying the end of breakfast and effectively causing Nyx to wake up and stumble out of his tree they headed to their respective activities. The Athena cabin kidnapped Scale for swordfighting and Thalia joined.

Scale avoided her to the best of his ability, fearing that he might break down again. He couldn't handle that. He needed to be at his best to protect Hoot and Nyx against the worst.

 **A/N: Okay. Yeah it got a little dark but I'm trying to make this a little more realistic.**

 **Foot notes:**

 **1.:** **SCAA01** **Stands for "Subclass Double A One" meaning he's the first experiment in that group. Subclass A is any mutant. The second A means he's a "fictional" hybrid. So, all demigod mutants would be that. Is it weird I took some time to contstruct that? Please review.**


	5. The Infirmary Incident

Nyx knew it wasn't right but he hated this supposedly secure camp just as much as he hated the lab, if not more. At least back at the lab he could sleep during the day. The whitecoats had some small sliver of decency. Sure, they forced him to try staying awake during the day to see how strongly the Experiments' natural instincts affected them, but they didn't make him do so much during daylight. They at least let him get in proper sleep.

He forced himself to focus on the archery range. His malnourished body and nocturnal nature made the task nearly impossible.

Nyx held the bow awkwardly. He never really had to use his arms in such a way. He barely had to use his legs as a child, now that he thought of it. He tried to shoot the arrow with a bit of encouragement from his cabinmates and Will Solace, Son of Apollo. The first one landed a mere inch in front of his foot. The second went a little farther but was still feet away from the target.

"Pull it harder," Will advised. Nyx followed the instruction. He pulled with all his might and the arrow flew. And flew. Behing Nyx. They couldn't see it after a few feet because it had landed in the swordfighting arena.

"Nyx! That shouldn't be _possible!"_ Will shouted. Nyx should have known this place would be just as bad as the lab. Eventually, they'd get mad that his body reacted in a different way than it should. And he'd somehow be given the blame.

Nyx glared. The stone cold glare he'd come to use to make it seem like he didn't _care_ what the whitecoats had in store for him.

"It's okay, Nyx," Will told him. "You can try again. You'll get it eventually!"

Nyx shook his head and went to sit on the sidelines. Will put his hand in front of the younger boy. "At least try."

Nyx glared and resumed his venture over to a place he could curl up and sleep.

"Yo, dude" a Hermes girl shouted, jolting him out of bed and actually hurting his ears a bit.

She noticed him squinting and looking kind of lost as to where he was supposed to look.

"You need glasses?" she asked.

" _What_ are glasses?" he asked. He'd never heard of such a thing. The girl started laughing.

"Gods, I hope you're joking! But, they're little things you wear to make your eyesight better. I've noticed you squint all the time and the whole camp's noticed that you run into things that should be very obvious unless you can't see them properly."

"Oh, I can see just _fine._ It's just a little blurry. I can see _fine._ "

The girl didn't believe his story.

"Oh yeah? Then how many fingers am I holding up?"

That proved a problem for Nyx.

" I don't know," Nyx admitted.

"You need glasses," the girl challenged.

The silence was awkward and Nyx's fairly misplaced glare was hard. Eventually he sighed and figured he had to tell the girl the _real_ reason he didn't know.

"No. I just never learned how to count."

"Very funny. I'm taking you to the infirmary to get your eyes tested."

Nyx didn't think he'd have to endure any test while he was here. They didn't know about the wings, did they? He sighed and mentally prepared himself for a whitecoat that had been hiding out waiting to shine bright lights in his eyes and get mad when he just _couldn't_ tell them what he was looking at. But, he'd always seen the world as blurry shapes and colors. He couldn't even tell you the color of his closest friends eyes if they never told him. It was too far away and too small.

They walked into the infirmary and Nyx began to shake. He knew fighting the whitecoats would only end with him being the brunt of their angry hand but he just didn't want the pain. The lights were bright and the needles and wires he had to wear everytime he went into a room outside of his cage were unbearable. The electric collar made him feel even more inhuman then he already was.

"Nyx!" the girl shouted forcing him out of a painful memory before it could really start.

"Please don't," he begged whoever was in the room. "Please please don't."

"Nyx," Will told him. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just test your eyes to make sure they work properly."

Nyx shook his head. "No! Don't! It'll hurt and it's bright and No! No! No!"

Nyx was losing his composure. He just couldn't take it. He could see white all around him. HE couldn't tell if there was a cage or a table and he couldn't really tell if the person in the room had a needle or collar. "No! No! No! You're a monster! You've done this to me! Please don't! Stop! Please. Please. Please."

Nyx tried to breathe but he couldn't in this current state.

"Nyx, listen to me," Will tried to get him out of that dark place. "I am not going to hurt you. All an eyes test is is reading a little paper on the wall."

Nyx didn't understand the words really, it seemed. Just heard _test_ and continued with his anger.

"No! No! No! Please stop! No! No! No! No test! No! It hurts! It's too bright! Please don't."

Nyx was crying uncontrollably at this point and no one could figure how to stop it. Mr. D and Chiron came in.

"Why is the little brat throwing such a tantrum? The whole city can hear it! Emma? Will?"

Emma ignored Mr. D and instead addressed an adult that might actually _care_.

"Chiron, he started freaking out when we came in here. I don't know why but he's yelling about it being too bright and hurting. He won't stop crying and shaking and when we try to calm him down he just starts yelling at us again."

"Nyx, I promise none of us will hurt you," Will tried again. "Can I _please_ just test your eyes?"

Nyx shook more violently now.

"No! It hurts! Test always hurt! No! No! No! You can't! Please, don't. Please please don't! I can't see what you want me to ! No! No! No! No! Too bright! Too bright! No! No! No! No!"

"He's scared of an _eye_ _test?"_ Mr. D asked. "Brat. He's wasting everyone's time. Just do the test and make him do it whether he likes it or not."

"No! No! NO! Please don't! Please don't! Just let me go back to my cage!" Nyx was revealing more information then he would had he been in his right state of mind but that last comment had caught the attention of _everyone_ in the room. "Please don't! Please don't! It hurts! It hurts! Too bright! Please, STOP."

Nyx choked on his own sobs and began coughing. He calmed down after another half hour of screaming and violent shaking. They four people trying to calm him had enough sense to get him out of the infirmary before he freaked out again.

"Would he make you feel better if I just have you read something out here?" Will asked. Nyx looked at him and shivered. Will figured if he didn't back down now they'd be spending another hour and a half with a screaming Nyx. "Never mind. Its fine."

Emma glared. "I want to know why you reacted so badly to a _hospital._ And I want to know now."

"The white," Nyx explained. "The lights. They hurt."

Emma couldn't really understand what he meant but she didn't think it wise to pry. Hoot and Scale saw them and came over sitting next to their friend.

Scale glared at the other four people present. " _What_ did you do to Nyx?" he growled so fiercely even Hoot and Nyx flinched away from their friend.

"Nothing!" Emma yelled. "I promise. All I did was take him to get his eyes tested in the infirmary and he freaked out. Wouldn't stop screaming and shaking for nearly two hours."

"Idiots!" Hoot yelled then softened as she turned to Nyx. "It's okay, Nyx. We're in New York, remember? Not California. It's different."

Nyx nodded.

"While I have all three of you here," Chiron told the distrustful trio. "When Nyx was yelling he yelled about a cage. Said something along the lines of 'just put me back in my cage' I'd like to know what he meant by that."

Hoot glared at the older man. "I _do not_ want to talk about it."

"Nyx, I'm Emma by the way."

Nyx nodded.

Emma and Will sat down.

"Nyx, you don't really know what I look like do you?" Emma asked. He shook his head.

"He'd have to have to be staring at you dead on with perfect eye contact from hardly any distance and he can see your hair but it's so blurry telling the color of it would be hard," Hoot provided since Nyx was still to shaken and exhausted to talk.

"Well, I have brown hair with a blue strand in it and brown eyes, Nyx," Emma told him.

Nyx nodded. But, he soon fell asleep on the ground curled up like a dog.

"He does know it's like not even afternoon, right?" Emma asked.

Hoot nodded. "He's _always_ slept more during the day then at night. We're still trying to adjust to camp life."

When the conch for lunch blew Nyx reluctantly got up and went to the pavilion where they each ate at a different table.

Nyx summoned the pellets he'd eaten his whole life. He always thought that it tasted fine.

"What are you eating, Nyx?"

"I'm not sure. It's what I've always eaten."

Emma picked up a peace and smelled it then stuck it in her mouth to investigate. She spit it out into a napkin.

"One, that taste gross! And Two, Nyx, you can't eat that."

"Why not?" he countered.

"It's literally _dog food_. Do you mean to tell me you've eaten dog food your whole life?"

Nyx nodded. He didn't really know what it was. And he'd never minded the taste. He liked it, if he was being honest.

"I'm not going to let you eat that." She summoned what she figured any teenage boy would like: PIZZA and coaxed Nyx into eating it.

Nyx ate a bite warily. He didn't know what it was he was eating. He'd never seen such a thing. He could only eat a few bites.

"It's different," he explained.

Emma nodded. "It's okay. We'll get you used to it."

And from then on Emma made it a point to sit across from Nyx during evrey meal. She swore she'd get him to stop eating dog food as if he was supposed to. And she succeeded some days. It took her more time to get him to try some things than others. He still wouldn't go anywhere _near_ the orange sticks she called carrots or any of the deserts after the taste of chocolate cake. He didn't like the sweetness one bit. He said it was _too different._ But, Emma counted it as a victory when he said something into the plate and got pizza. She could live with the fact that the pizza had dog food instead of vegetables on it.

 **A/N: Nyx might be slightly OOC. But, I mean come on the kid basically lived in a cage and a torture chamber the first 13 or so years of his life. The whole trio is** _ **going**_ **to be at least a little out of touch. As for the dog food: The books never told us what they fed them and I highly doubt it was food fit for kings and queens. Let alone human consumption.**


	6. Tree

During the campfire the trio snuck of to their clearing. They jumped off the logs and hoped for the best. And Nyx learned rather quickly that mixing a lack of sleep, a new place, sharp twigs, and not knowing what he was doing _might_ not have been the greatest plan in the world.

Nyx pushed himself of the log and flapped his pitch black, featherless, wings. He flew in no real direction. And he didn't really know how to steer. Or how to stop. He kept flapping his wings, which just made him go faster until he figured he'd just stop flapping. And then gravity beckoned his small frame. CRACK.

He was on the ground with a slightly twisted ankle and a _very_ broken wrist.

"Nyx!" Hoot and Scale both called out.

"Are you okay?" Hoot finished the statement before Scale could even blink.

Nyx nodded. It wasn't like he'd never broken a bone before. But, he _had_ never done it on his own.

Nyx went to stand up and hissed from the pain. He'd never tried to walk on a hurt ankle before.

"I'm fine!" Nyx swatted his friends' hands away when they tried to help him. They sighed.

"We should go back to the camp," Scale stated. And they walked, or in Nyx's case limped back to their respective cabins.

Unfortunatly for Nyx, Emma was already there.

He limped over to his spot in the cabin and sat down, hissing yet again.

"Are you okay, Nyx?" she asked. He nodded. It was _just_ a little twisted. "Don't lie to me! Are you okay?"

Nyx nodded again. "I'm fine."

"You were limping."

"It's _nothing_ ," Nyx said. It wasn't. He had been through _much_ worse. "It'll heal."

"Yeah, but you need a cast and you have to go_" Emma trailed off. She didn't think that telling Nyx he'd need to see a doctor would go over to well after the morning's events in the infirmary. Nyx knew what she meant, though.

"I'm _fine,_ Emma. It'll heal."

Nyx wasn't lying, He did have a good immune system and his broken bones had always healed almost as good as new.

"Okay, if you say so," Emma told him. "But I want to know how you hurt your ankle and your wrist isn't looking all that good either. Explain."

"No," Nyx wasn't about to explain to her that he hurt his ankle trying to use his wings. That'd be a great way to get himself locked back up.

"Tell me."

"Fine, I tripped."

"On what?" her voice hinted at complete disbelief.

"A log, the one with the arrow in it."

Emma bought the story. Mostly because that wouldn't be too hard a thing to accomplish with perfect vision let alone with Nyx's poor eyesight.

Emma fell asleep and Nyx didn't dare take his senses off of all the possible entrances of Cabin 11. All it took was one mistake and he would be alone in that vile place he'd been forced to call home. The only thing that made the place even close was his little family.

He listened to his cabin mates sleep for a few hours and tolerated the pain that was coursing through his injured limbs. He just didn't feel safe without Hoot and Scale in the room. He used his left hand to push himself off the found and pulled up his intact ankle and was in a standing position. He tried to put his twisted ankle on the ground and the pain caused him to hiss rather loudly, and stumble to the point he fell back to the floor-right where he started with a small THUMP.

Nyx sighed and went to try again. It took him three more tries to give up. He really hoped that everyone else would be as gullible as Emma had been. He had no such luck.

"Fall in Cabin 11," the identical cousnelors chorused. When Nyx tried and failed to stand up as if he wasn't hurt, they noticed.

"Nyx, that looks like a pretty bad injury. You can't even _stand!"_ the two flocked over to him in synch and reach to help him up. He shook his head and pushed their hands away with his uninjured left hand.

"I'm _fine._ "

"No you're not," the identical brothers chorused. They used his distraction to effortlessly get him off the floor.

"Don't touch me!" Nyx cried out. The Stolls backed away.

"You need some sort of medical help. We can take you to the infirmary.

Infrimary. Hospital. White. Needles. The Lab. Nyx shook his head and _tried_ to run. THUMP. Nyx groaned. That hurt.

Hoot and Scale walked in.

"Leave him alone!" Scale growled and the rest of Cabin 11 scattered like mice. Except for Emma.

"I _said_ leave him alone," Scale fixated a fierce glare on Emma.

"He's my friend too, you know."

Scale glared, this girl was more than certainly an agent for The Lab.

"Leave. Nyx. Alone," Scale's dragon slit eyes went from their sea green color to a dark red with that one sentence. And Emma began to suspect something was seriously up with these new kids.

And with that he and Hoot helped Nyx out and into the dining pavilion for breakfast.

"Nyx," Emma said the minute Scale was tucked away at Table 3.

He acknowledged that he was listening to her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Nyx nodded. "I'm fine. Bones heal."

Emma sighed. "Okay," she didn't really believe him but let it go for the moment.

"If you're hurt, go to the infirmy," another Hermes camper said. Emma wanted to scream at that point.

"You don't have to," Emma told Nyx before his mind could go back to whatever place made him have such horrid feelings towards people most knew were meant to _help_ you.

Nyx let out a quiet breath of relief. The conch horn signaling the end of breakfast blew and Nyx struggled to stand on his injured ankle. When Emma again went to help him he swatted at her hand. He _hated_ physical contact.

"I'm not going to hurt you. And you can't walk!"

Nyx glared.

"Fine!" Emma still waited as he limped all the way to archery range, sat down on the bleachers, and proved that natural instincts were much stronger than loud noises in the background and flying arrows.

 **A/N: I need some help. Any ideas for Hoot or Scale to meltdown a bit?**


	7. Fire Hydrocloric Acid

Scale was worried about Nyx. He knew the young mutant probably hadn't hurt himself that badly but he couldn't help but fear something bad might happen. He tried to ignore the feeling long enough to just get through sword fighting but he felt like he was abandoning his friend- a friend that was more like his little brother- for a sport he was admittedly decent at.

"Scale!" the leader of the sword fighting class yelled. "Get your head back down to Earth!"

Scale reluctantly obliged for a few more minutes than shook his head.

"I'll be right back."

And with that Scale headed over to the archery range tailed by Hoot.

Nyx was sleeping somewhat peacefully on the bleachers.

Clarisse La' Rue, a daughter of Ares, came over and glared at Scale and Hoot.

"Look at the weird kid. He does realize that sleeping is meant for the night time right?"

Scale's eyes got a little redder when she insulted Nyx. "Honestly, you'd think he'd at least learn to defend himself with all his fears."

It took one more insult for Scale's entire being to become engulfed in metaphorical flames. He was beyond angry.

" _Scale"_ Hoot warned. It was too late Scale's mouth opened and bluish hot flames shot out. Clarisse ducked. But everyone that had been in the general vicinity of the pair's argument saw the flames. Scale blinked then turned and ran in the direction of the woods. He couldn't take another experiment. He hated the pain too much. Hated the inferior feeling the whitecoats gave him. Clarisse gave him that feeling in a much smaller dosage. But, he'd be strong for Hoot and Nyx.

Hoot glared at the girl that had so kindly harmed her friend.

"So, what is freaky about you, Blondie?" Clarisse asked. Hoot followed the rough imprints of Scale's faster than human speed and found him sitting on the bank of the river with his knees up to his chess and his raven hair falling in his wet green eyes. Those same green eyes would definitely have the imprints of his hands encircling them if Scale didn't lift his head up for more than the second it took to blow his nose into his sleeve.

"Scale," Hoot called. Scale bounced up and plastered a smile on his face.

"Why are you crying?" she asked. Not buying his fake happiness for a second.

"I wasn't crying. Water got in my face. From this thing…." Scale pointed at the river. He didn't know what it was called.

"What's wrong?" Hoot wasn't going to back down. Scale didn't need to be alone.

"Nothing. Just don't like Nyx being insulted."

"Then let's go back to the campsite."

Scale shook his head. He couldn't. The minute they returned they would be strapped to tables and experimented on. And it was all his temper's fault.

Nyx slept through all of the conch shells and when he woke up night had fallen. He went to stand so he could find someone that might still be awake but his weak ankle couldn't take it and his pale, thin frame crumpled to the ground. And he couldn't get back up.

"Hey!" someone shouted from a short distance from his left side. His body tensed. His useless eyes blinked. And his mind began racing. He didn't want to fight any of this right now. He weakly held out his arm and let a single tear slip down his pale cheek. Whatever the needle did to him might actually be better than what the fear of it happening was doing to his brain. " _What_ are you doing?"

"Just do your stupid job," Nyx spat. "Let me guess, this won't hurt_ _you_."

"Oh, right. It's me, Emma."

Nyx sighed in slight relief and pulled his arm back to his body. But he didn't relax entirely. He still didn't trust anyone outside of Hoot and Scale fully.

"Can I at least wrap your ankle? It looks like you can't even walk on it."

The last time someone wrapped a broken bone it had been with something treated with one of the most corrosive substances he could think of: hydrochloric acid."

It had burned and just made the bone take longer to heal. He could still feel the scar it had left on occasion. Nyx remembered the negative experience and began to shake.

Emma knew she'd messed up when her friend started to repeat some of the same behavior from when they had been in the infirmary.

"No. No. No. No doctor! No. NO. No! It hurts! It burns! Stop it! Stop it! It hurts! Monster. Monster! Please stop! Please stop! No! No! No! No! NO! No! No! Quit it! No cast! Cast hurts! Cast scars_"

Emma watched in horror as the teenager began to sob like a young child. She remembered waiting it out had been the only thing to work and remembered that they had to get Nyx out of the situation that caused it. But she didn't understand what the two situations had in common at all.

She thought for a few minutes. Then started to realize Nyx wasn't okay with anything related to doctors. He would at least be slightly uncomfortable when hospitals were mentioned. She needed to ask one of the Apollo campers if there was a better way to fix Ny'x problems. It took a couple of hours but then Nyx's sobs were again reduced to gentle hiccups and small trickles of tears.

Emma and Nyx went back to Cabin 11 and Emma got a few hours of much needed sleep while Nyx finished calming himself.

Emma and Nyx woke up the next morning and Nyx pretended like the previous night had never happened.

They ate breakfast then went to the archery range. Before Emma went off she looked Nyx dead in the eye and skipped the cryptic words and spoke four transparent words: "I want an explanation."

"No."

Emma sighed and walked away shooting arrows at the target a little better than Nyx but not by much.

Thalia knew that something was going on with the trio she had found in Central Park. She wanted to know. And her stubborn nature was going to force her to find out. Scale _had_ breathed fire. And she heard Hoot say she didn't grow up with her mortal family. Nyx was the most fearful child she had met in a long time. And Grover had said that the three smelled like demigods _and_ something else. If Thalia had her way she would know. Even if it involved questionable tactics to find out. Like spying on the pale, unclaimed child that seemed to almost fear his own shadow.

 **A/N: A few people have asked if Solangelo will be a thing in this story. I hate to disappoint you guys but the answer is more than likely no. It's just not what the story is about.**


	8. THIS IS NOT A CHAPTER CLICK NEXT CHAP

Hey, Look.

I'm sorry but this story cannot go on. I LOVE reading the reviews. And since Fanfiction won't let us disable guest reviews. And I don't deal with negativity WELL. Sorry. So this story is now ceased. Sorry. If I could disable the guest reviews, then I might continue. But, I can't. And they are extremely negative. And I don't want to deal with that when I'm trying to release my pent up stress from my actual life.


	9. Fears, Rants, Secrets, Trusts, & Offers

"Scale, we can't stay out here forever," Hoot tried to reason with her friend and protector. If even he was scared then there was no hope left in the world at all for her and Nyx.

Scale refused to budge. "Scale, Nyx still needs us!"

That got the dragon-boy up and out of his pathetic position next to the river. "Let's go!"

The mutants headed back into the camp and braced themselves for the certain pain and suffering they would receive from the people they had been living with.

Emma sighed as she noticed Nyx shaking in his sleep the next morning. She kept telling him that she was his friend but she wasn't so sure. She knew very little about her young friend: his altered circadian rhythm, his name, and the fact that he was afraid of _something_.

And now that she thought about it. She really only knew one thing for sure and that was that her friend hated being awake during the day. His name wasn't exactly normal. She wasn't sure why he would lie. She wasn't sure what he was so afraid of. _What are you hiding?_

As the conch horn blew Nyx stirred and got up.

"Do you need any help?" Emma asked. His ankle HAD been severely injured. Nyx shook his head. The two exited the cabin, Nyx not having any issues walking. The young mutant always healed quickly, but Emma didn't know that.

When they entered the pavilion Nyx sat down at the Hermes table and his mind wandered.

He was snapped into alertness by Emma repeatedly snapping her fingers in his face and shouting his name.

His brain must have lost a few cells from her shouting because he responded to her simply by asking what he might ask a scientist: "What damn test is it today, _**Doctor**_?"

Nyx's voice was gruff. All the pent up anger from his entire life came out in the way he said that one question.

Emma raised an eyebrow but thought it better to stick to one struggle at a time. Getting the young mutant to eat was her biggest problem at the moment. Nyx had a slice of pizza then attempted to make his way over to Scale's table. HE tripped over a chair that had been pushed out of the way and fell face first. He threw his hands out to catch himself. Hoot and Scale ran over to him.

"Nyx, are you okay?" Scale asked. No one needed Scale to ask the question they could see the lines of worry sketched delicately on the dragon-boy's face.

"Fine," Nyx growled and pushed himself up. "I'm going to bed, okay?"

Scale nodded, "Okay. We're coming with you."

With that the three mutants headed to Cabin 11 not realizing they had a tag along or two.

Thalia looked at Emma from across the pavilion and ran over to her. "You're friends with that Nyx kid, right?" she asked.

Emma nodded. "Kinda. He's not very open, though."

"There is something off about those three, help me find out?"

Emma nodded. Later she'd regret the decision. But, she needed to know and it involved actually letting her Hermes traits come out for an adventure. "I'm in."

The two followed the mutant trio until they were a few feet from the door. The trio went in and Thalia and Emma hid in the bushes. Using a cup Emma had snatched from the kitchen, they heard the entire conversation. And the mutants wee none the wiser.

"Sorry I blew it," Scale apologized to his friends. "Where else can we go?"

"You didn't blow it," Hoot reasoned. "No one has actually confronted us. And I haven't seen any scientist. Nyx, have you heard any?"

Nyx shook his head. "But, I'm not always accurate, Hoot."

"Can we lock the door?" Hoot asked. Nyx nodded.

"Why?"

"I want to stretch my wings," Hoot whispered.

Her whisper was too loud, though. The girls listening on the other side of the door heard her.

"Wings?" Thalia mouthed. Emma nodded and motioned for her to shut up so they could see what other information they could gain.

Hoot locked the door and sat back down and unfurled her feathery wings. Her companions did the same. Though, their wings were of course much less feathery.

Emma saw this as she peaked in through the window for a millisecond then ducked down so they wouldn't see her.

"Chiron?" Emma asked. Thalia nodded and repeated the sentiment.

"Chiron."

The two girls ran to the Big House as fast as their demigod legs could carry them, crunching the ground below them. The mutants heard but were too late.

At the big house Emma and Thalia barged into the middle of a meeting between Chiron and Will Solace, head of the Apollo cabin.

"Sorry," Emma said nodding at Will.

"No problem. You look like it's urgent."

Emma nodded.

"We think the new kids might be monsters, sir," Emma told the old centaur in the room.

"But, the borders?" Will questioned.

"We don't know. But we saw the three of them with wings," Thalia told the room.

The door creaked opened to reveal the mutants. Their clothes covered their wings and they looked as inconspicuous as ever.

Emma glared at the new arrivals.

"Nyx, how could you? Oh wait. You're a monster so you were never anyone's friend in the first place? So I can't even call you a traitor! You're just a spy sent from the depths of Hades to get into the demigod ranks then kill and eat us all! Get out. I don't want anything to do with you. Was your fear an act? Was your eyesight or lack thereof an act? If it was just GET OUT. Gods, I hate you. And your kind. Get out of my sight. I hate you!"

Emma's rant wasn't even finished but Scale had heard enough. This girl wasn't only ridiculing his friend but Hoot and himself as well. This lit a spark inside him. Hoot didn't notice in time and a huge flame came out. The flames engulfed the entire room bouncing from object to object until it had engulfed the entire room. The door was open so the occupants of the room darted out and got out of the house. They stood a few feet away and watched as the big house crumbled to the ground taking of its contents down with it.

"Monsters, the three of you! Get out. We'll bill your master for the damages."

Hoot glared at the girl. "You don't know _anything_. Let's go."

Scale and Nyx nodded and they got up to the hill. They froze when they saw exactly what they were afraid of just on the other side of the magical barrier: scientist in their terrifying whitecoats.

Hoot whispered into Nyx ear to let him know not to cross the barrier just yet.

They could hear through the barrier. The scientists were angry they had lost their subjects for a time. They were thrilled to be getting them back. They just needed the little mutants to cross the barrier.

Thalia came up to the hill a half hour later. "Why aren't you monster gone yet?" she growled.

Hoot pointed at the scientist. "Mortals? Just let them in. Gods, they're probably just here to pick up a kid or something. As she went to allow them in and take down the barrier Hoot and Scale both tackled her.

"No!"

"The kid they want is us. And we don't want to go with them," Scale explained at Thalia's indignant face.

"I want an explanation. You're monsters, aren't you?"

"Why?" Hoot questioned.

"You have wings!"

"From scientific experiments!" she defended. "We'll explain but if we go with those people, we're as good as dead."

One of the scientist looked at the experiments with a sick look in his eyes. "We'll be gentle, come here you little freaks!"

"Gentle?" Hoot yelled at them. "You just mean you won't leave the shock collar on all day!"

Yeah, she was scared but they didn't need to know that.

"That is gentle," the scientist countered. "I could just see how you'd handle it shocking you every time you move your throat again."

The mutants shuddered. That had been a long month. And it had been difficult for them to want to speak for a while after it ended.

Chiron galloped over. "What is the problem here, children?"

"These three said they'll explain but they can't go with the mortals on the other side of the barrier that want to take them."

Chiron waved his hand and the mortals looked dazed and walked far away. "Ah. The magic of the mist. Now, I guess our meeting can occur right here. Seeing as we no longer _have_ a place to meet.

"Sorry," Scale said. "Emma was insulting Nyx. I take that sort of thing pretty seriously."

"Speaking of Emma," Chiron interjected. "I believe she ought to hear this explanation. And Will considering you almost killed him as well."

The two were rounded up and sat on the hill.

"Oh so now you'll explain since we caught you in your lies?" Emma growled.

"If you don't shut up, I'm not going to stop Scale from frying you," Hoot warned. Scale looked at his friend.

"Is that permission?" he questioned.

"You already tried, I don't control you."

"You _could_ ," he mumbled.

"We aren't monsters," Hoot started out.

"That's what monsters would say," Emma countered. Scale puffed out a flame barely big enough to light a candlestick came out. Just as a little warning sign. Hoot continued.

"We've spent our entire lives in a science lab. We don't know how we got there. But, we've always lived there. The people there weren't exactly nice. We're mutants so they test us. They say it's for the good of science. Really it's just torture a lot of the time."

Thalia held up her hand and asked Hoot to stop for a minute. "You mean you've never known your family?"

"I'm sitting right next to them," Scale all but growled.

"Scale if you don't calm down in the next two seconds I will _make_ you."

"Yes ma'am." Hoot was downright scary when she wanted to be.

"Anyway, Scale's right. But if you mean the people that gave birth to us or were supposed to raise us. All I remember is the lab. I don't even know if we were born or just created in test tubes."

"How did you learn?" Will asked.

"What do you mean?" Scale asked.

"You speak fairly well. And I assume you can read and write."

"We listened to the people around us to learn English. And we can't read or write. No one bothered to teach us."

"This might not be my place," Chiron cut in. "But, I'd like to know a little bit about the conditions in this lab."

"Unpleasant," Nyx added. Startling everyone aside from his mutant comrades.

"Details?"

"We were kept in cages," Hoot clarified. "Inside a room that had no color and no real decoration aside from one poster with a picture of one of the scientist holding a bunny rabbit and a needle."

"Why?" Will asked.

"I have no clue. Couldn't understand it. Though, knowing them it was probably saying the rabbits have more worth in life than the mutant freaks in that place!" Hoot was getting angrier by the second. "I know that most of those stupid scientists probably have children! But they're cruel and they don't see the fact that sorry we are human! Maybe not entirely. But we are human."

Hoot blinked and grabbed the thin air in front of her and started moving her hands as if she was rattling the cage bars.

"What's she doing?" Will asked.

"Trying to rattle bars that aren't there anymore. She won't hear us," Scale explained.

Hoot kept ranting as she shook the nonexistent bars. "How is it we're the monsters? The only time we hurt anyone is when we're threatened." The girl let out a sharp loud scream that caused those with superior hearing to cover their ears and cry out. Hoot calmed down rather easily after that.

"How often were you out of the cages?" Chiron questioned. He feared the answer.

"For experiments. Not really sure if you want to count those," Hoot breathed out. Everyone was eyeing her slightly afraid she might return to her melt down.

Chiron sighed. "Aside from that?"

"We stayed in our cages aside from that," Hoot told the centaur.

Emma took a deep breath. "That's awful! You're just kids! And you didn't really get to have any such thing as a childhood? Birthdays?"

The trio glanced at her in confusion. Was that important?

"People celebrate the day they were born. Do you even know the day you were born?"

The three shook their heads. Everyone frowned.

"I want to know how you guys got out of there, though," Will cut in before Emma could take her rant any farther.

"Some kids came in and released us. Then the wing of the building we had been in burst into flames," Scale told the son of Apollo.

"So, your wings are from the lab?" Will clarified.

They nodded. "We're not monsters. We're mutants. I think they altered our genetics," Hoot explained.

"What animals?" Will questioned.

"Bat for Nyx. Dragon for Scale. And owl for me."

"So they gave you names that went with the animals?"

The trio shook their heads. "No," Hoot told him. "They didn't give us names. We made them up."

Emma sighed. "You don't even know your real names? They didn't tell you that? AND they didn't give you names? What'd they call you?"

Hoot sighed knowing the girl wouldn't like her next sentence. "Mostly just _Freaks_ or experiment numbers."

Emma growled. Then turned towards Nyx. "I am so sorry I accused you of being a monster. Forgive me?"

Nyx shook his head. "I don't trust people that easily, Emma. At first I kinda thought you were a spy. But, I can try. Just be warned Scale has a habit of not thinking and trying to cook people that threaten me and Hoot, okay?"

Emma nodded. "I can handle that. Though, Scale I will douse your flames if you _ever_ burn down an entire building again without a better reason. Got it?"

Scale nodded slightly confused at how that would work given he was the son of Poseidon, anyway.

"One more thing," Thalia told the group when they were close to concluding the revealing meeting. "You three can't read, right?"

They nodded.

Will glared at her. "That's not their fault!"

"I'm saying, my aunt's husband is an English teacher. He can teach you, if you want?"

The three nodded.

Chiron agreed with the sentiment. "Thalia, I think you'll need to IM your aunt and Mr. Blofis and tell them they need to come to camp for a little while."

Thalia smiled.

"Hoot, Scale, Nyx, this is your secret to tell and you don't have to tell anyone. But, it might be wise to let people know so you don't keep having episodes. Besides, it seems it'd be nice to be able to publicly stretch your wings," Chiron advised.

"We'll think about it," Hoot said. "Chiron, now that you know. Is there any way that the three of us can room together? We just always did when we were younger. And I keep waking up from fear and panicking that my friends aren't close by."

Chiron breathed. "I think we can add a room since we'll be rebuilding the big house. If you can wait a few weeks."

Hoot nodded. It was Scale's doing that their meeting house was now a pile of ashes.

 **A/N: I took a few artistic liberties. Yeah, I know Sally isn't techinally her aunt. But whatever. She is in this. In this universe Paul knows about demigods from the beginning because of Thalia living with Sally for parts of the year.**

 **I may consider adding Solangelo. We'll see. If I can do it right, then we'll go there.**


	10. Not So Welcome Teachers!

**A/N: I'm baaaack. With a new chapter. Sorry for the delay but I have to write a 10 page paper. Guess what my topic is! :** _ **Harry Potter.**_ **:D Yeah. :D So happy! Hope you enjoy. Please review.**

Sally Jackson stared at her niece, Thalia, through the Iris Message. She had taken Thalia in shortly after her own son was taken from the hospital nursery. This had prevented Sally from moping about but she missed her son and still held onto hope he was still out there _somewhere._ She knew this was very much unlikely but she had hope. Sally nodded at Thalia's request and was excited to actually see the pseudo-daughter that she had raised since she was about two years old. She had a home with Sally. But with Zeus' godly blood coursing through her veins it wasn't all that safe.

"Aunt Sally, see you tomorrow!" Thalia said before disconnecting the IM.

Thalia and Emma sat in the pavilion with Nyx, Scale, and Hoot.

The trio was all but shaking.

"It'll be fine! Thalia's aunt and uncle are really nice!" she tried to reassure the mutants.

The three glared at her and she stepped back. Those eyes were scary. Hoot's were as grey as a cobblestone. Nyx's were wide but Emma knew that they were almost unseeing. And Scale's well they were a dragon's eyes. A small yellow slit in the center of his sea green orbs. Not to mention two of them were much more powerful than her. Combined the three of them could destroy her if their unharnessed demigod powers were set off. They were also somewhat liable to attack if they felt threatened. They looked human but they had grown up with only violent contact. If they felt threatened their innate animal instincts could easily bring about harm to their perceived attacker.

Thalia walked in with Sally and Paul.

"Hi!" Paul shouted. The mutants threw their hands up to their ears and slid back on the benches. He didn't help his case by sticking his hand out in the offer of a handshake. If the mutants could've gone any farther back they would have. They settled for huddling together in protection of each other from the strange- and violent in their minds- man. "I'm Paul."

Emma glared at him. Scale mimicked the look and Paul pulled his hand away. Emma thought he was a tad oblivious if he didn't notice the trio was in a stance that indicated they certainly felt threatened. Emma let the situation be but she wouldn't put it past Scale to turn Mr. Blofis into a nice charred human and she figured Nyx could probably just bite the guy's hand if they got desperate.

"I'm Sally, what're your names?" Sally introduced herself trying to break the ice as she sat down on the opposite side of the table.

They looked at her, Nyx glancing to the left of her body. Scale introduced himself and his companions.

Paul made the mistake of sitting down on the same side of the table as the trio and again attempting a handshake. The quick movement startled the two that saw it. Hoot leaned forward from her hunched over position on the bench and bit the attacking hand.

Paul pulled his hand away a little late as a weak flame was exhaled from Scale's mouth, hitting its target and farther wounding Paul's hand.

Paul let out a screech after the flame hit his hand and the trio again threw their hands up to their ears in an effort to soothe the pain that the loud sound caused.

Emma was starting to feel like she had lied to her friend when she said this meeting would be fine.

"Uncle Paul, Let's go get that looked at."

Emma sat down next to Sally and looked at the trio across from them.

"Did you really have to _bite_ him?" Emma questioned.

Hoot nodded. "He was trying to hit us."

Emma blinked. Of course the mutants wouldn't understand normal human greetings.

"Mr. Blofis was just trying to greet you. It's normal for humans. Here try it."

Emma extended her hand and Hoot warily grabbed it then pulled away and shook her head. Emma sighed. "Maybe another time. But don't bite. That's not exactly okay, alright?"

Hoot nodded but Emma wasn't really sure she should believe her.

The conch horn blew for dinner and the group split off to their respective tables.

Scale trying to escape the pavilion as opposed to sitting with Thalia and her family. Thalia, unfortunately, noticed his attempt before he could actually escape.

"Scale! Come sit with us."

Scale sighed and sat down. Summoned his usual food and ate. Completely neglecting the utensils provided for him. Thalia sighed simply used to his lack of manners. Paul looked mortified.

"Use a fork!" Paul shouted. Outside of flinching from the sound Scale ignored the reaction. And continued using his hands to eat. Paul chose not to mention the fact that Scale was eating what looked like wet dog food. And making a mess all over his hands and face in the process.

"So, Scale. How do you like camp?" Sally asked trying to break the ice.

"It's better than where I came from," Scale offered. Thalia knew that wasn't saying very much at all.

"What's your favorite part?" Sally asked.

Scale shrugged. "Don't know."

Scale finished eating then ran out of the pavilion meeting up with his friends in their clearing.

"Thalia, why does he act like that?" Paul said. He was trying to be understanding, he knew many demigods lives were anything but easy or glamorous. Thalia shook her head. That was Scale's secret to keep or tell as he wished.

"Can't tell you," Thalia summarized. She could at least keep the secret; after all, she _was_ the one that put the three mutants in a place where they had no choice but to spill the beans.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I know it's a short chapter but things happened. I need some ideas for things to happen. I have some I like for later on in the story but if you guys have comments I'd love to hear them! If you're going to be incredibly rude that's fine. Flame away. Flames will be used for well I don't know. I don't eat marshmallows so not for making s'mores. Maybe for a bonfire for my little sister, though? Peace,**

 **MiaHominaTelosWrit.**


	11. This is My Rock

Scale kicked another rock into the body of water he had recently learned was a lake. He had no idea how he intended to lean anything from people that terrified him. He had tried, really. But neither of the _normal_ kids seemed to think so. Emma had scolded Hoot for defending herself. But it kept the attack away, didn't it? So why was that such a bad thing? Scale didn't understand.

Scale heard rustling in the leaves and froze. Ready to attack if need be.

"It's just me."

Scaled could tell by the voice it was Hoot. He wasn't scared of his best friend in any capacity.

"Hey," he called to her as she took a place right next to him. He kicked yet another rock into the lake.

"What's wrong?" Hoot asked. The look of concern on her face only made Scale feel he needed to protect her more.

"Nothing."

"I've known you forever, now tell me what's wrong."

She could be bossy when she wanted and yet Scale had always been the one to lead the trio. Maybe because he just took on the role willingly. Maybe because he could occasionally fry a whitecoats hand. No one really knew.

"It's nothing. I'm fine."

Hoot glared with her stone colored eyes and Scale backed down slightly.

"This place isn't much better. I mean yeah we aren't stuck in those metal cages anymore but we aren't together. And my cabin is actually really lonely."

Scale felt bad for telling her that much. And he didn't admit that he missed the consistency of the science lab. They knew what was happening there. Here it was one new thing after another. And the people they had told kept looking at them with this strange look they'd never seen. These people were acting like they needed to be careful around them, as if they were wild animals that had yet to be tamed. And yet they kind of were. Scale had no choice but to accept that fact.

Hoot nodded. "Mine's too crowded. It feels like I'm trapped. The same way I felt my entire life in those cages. You know?"

Scale nodded. "If I hadn't burned down that house we might have been able to convince him to let you and Nyx move into mine or something."

Hoot shook her head. "I think you burning down that house is why he agreed, though. Where _is_ Nyx?"

Scale shrugged. That was quite a good question in his mind.

Nyx glared at Emma across the Hermes table.

"Sit down and finish eating."

"I'm done." Nyx had barely touched his food. He'd had a longer day than usual. He just wanted to take a quick nap in the clearing and enjoy the company of his friends when he woke up.

"Eat," Emma ordered.

Nyx shoved a bite of pizza into his mouth and glared. Emma would get him to eat something aside form dog food covered pizza eventually, she hoped. Nyx stood up using the hand closest to the share to balance himself and then began walking towards the exit. As he passed the Ares kids' table a girl stuck her foot out. Nyx didn't see this and he tripped over it. The Ares kids let out a roaring laughter. A few kids from other tables joined in but only sparsely

"Oh, looks like he still can't walk all too good," Clarisse, the girl who had tripped him, mocked. Nyx sighed and tried to get up again. This time Clarisse simply pushed him down. The table could barely contain their laughter.

Nyx just sat there for a minute. He hated that if he tried to fight back she could easily confuse him since he couldn't see her. He got up as fast as he could and ran out of the pavilion. He didn't stop to hear the comments when he bumped against the pole on his way out.

The little he could see blurred as he got this strange water in his eyes. It tasted funny. He didn't like it. He had memorized the path towards the clearing, anyway. He ran in and practically threw himself into the tree and let his head fall behind him. He was exhausted and fell asleep without much incident. He managed to dodge his friends questions until he woke back up.

Emma had watched it go down and done nothing. She felt bad. The laughter kept on. Emma wanted to do something. Tell them it wasn't okay to hurt someone like that. But she sat frozen. She couldn't do anything about it really. All she would do is make it worse, right? She let herself think that. She'd apologize to Nyx later. Maybe she could lie and say that was another pleaseantry he'd never learned about.

And then something happened. The two or three Apollo kids that had laughed stopped laughing. And Will Solace stood on top of the table and screamed to get eberyoe's attention. The Ares kids were too busy laughing.

"It's NOT funny! You guys think he's just some weak kid. Well, fine. But if I see any of you guys messing with him you'll have to deal with me!"

Emma had hoped that little speech would end there. But, of course it didn't.

Will looked at her. "And you! Emma. Last I checked you were his friend! Why in gods' names did you not defend him? Run after him? Did you do anything to help him? Where is he right now? Do you even know?"

Emma looked down at her lap. Will was right. She should have chased after him. Or at least defended him.

"We're all demigods! And it's bad enough we have monsters attacking us at every turn. We shouldn't have to watch our own backs against each other. You disgusting _vlascas_."

Will stepped down from the table and left the pavilion. He wasn't sure what him do that. He figured it was because he knew what the kid had been through. And he figured he only knew a fraction of it. He had no idea where to find the young mutant so he started looking everywhere. And calling his name. He knew Nyx could hear pretty well and he had hoped he would come out at the sound of his name. He tried for a while and then gave in to his legs telling himto take a reak and sat down on the ground. He got lucky because a few seconds after he sat down Nyx, Hoot, and Scaled emerged from the forest.

"You shouldn't be in there at night," Will told them.

"Don't tell me what to do," Hoot growled. Will nodded.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Hey, Nyx I'm sorry about what happened at dinner. They were just being awful. Don't listen to them."

Nyx nodded but mentally cursed. Now his friends were going to freak.

"Nyx, what happened at dinner?" Hoot asked.

"Nothing. It's fine! I'm going to bed." As he walked off he muttered.," Thanks a lot."

At Will.

"Okay, Will, what happened at dinner?" Hoot demanded.

"I don't think he wants you to know."

Hoot glared. "Listen. I don't care who you are. But you have no right to tell me what Nyx wants. He needs us to know. We always need each other to know what's wrong. Because we've been around each other and only each other most of our lives. Now tell me."

Will glared. "No."

"Why not?" Hoot was getting impatient. And Scale had a feeling this would not end well.

"Hey, Hoot. Let's just let Nyx tell us when he's ready, okay?" Scale tried to diffuse the situation. Hoot sighed. And still ignored Scale's request.

"Tell us."

"No. He clearly didn't want you to know. Besides all it'll accomplish is Mister fire breath going and burning down the pavilion along with everyone in it. I'm sorry but you guys aren't quite human."

"Neither are you!" Hoot yelled. She was usually the coolheaded one but for some reason this guy was pushing all of the wrong buttons.

At this point Scale lost the small amount of reason he had.

"Please, tell us?" Scale tried asking nicely since Hoot's rather aggressive approach didn't seem to work.

"If I tell you, you'll get angrier. I've seen you when someone hurt Nyx or Hoot. You're not exactly the calmest. And I'm sorry but I don't like my friends well done by dragon flame."

Hoot gave up.

"I'm going to bed."

Scale nodded. And waved to his friend. When she was gone he continued

"She's gone, so do you want to tell me now?"

"No."

Scale glared. His dragon eyes seeming to oddly blink.

"Will you just tell me, I promise I won't burn down the pavilion."

Will sighed. He was fine with that. He didn't really belive this promise but the pavilion would be fairly cleared out in a few minutes anyway.

"An Ares kid tripped Nyx as he was walking out, made fun of his lack of decent sight, and then pushed back onto the ground when he went to stand back up. All of the Ares kids laughed and a few others. But Nyx was fine."

Will was as angry as could be still but he made it sound like it was nothing so Scale might calm down a little.

"Who?" Scaled growled.

"Yeah, I'm not telling you that. Because I don't want to be an accomplice to attempted murder, thanks."

Scale looked at him. "What?"

"I don't want to get in trouble for causing you, and therefore helping you, to try to kill someone."

Scale nodded in understanding.

"Now. Who?"

Will wasn't proud of his answer but he muttered, "Clarisse."

He'd forgotten that Scale would be able to hear that as if he had shouted it from the rooftops loud and clear.

Scale took off running. The pavilion was empty. Scale left and began running around the grounds asking anyone he saw if they had seen Clarisse. He didn't luck out much until he saw Emma. He ran over to her and knocked to the ground trying to stop.

"Didn't mean to do that."

"You know, most people would help someone they knocked to the ground up. And I don't know, say the word _sorry_."

Emma dusted of her jeans and look at Scale. "Why were you running, anyway?"

"Looking for someone."

"Who?"

"Clarisse. Have you seen her."

Emma nodded. "Check the training arena. Or her cabin."

Scale smiled. "Awesome!"

And took off running yet again. "You're welcome!" she called after him following it with a muttered, "Gods, should be teaching him some manners as opposed to reading."

She laughed at her own joke and headed back to the cabin. She went and sat next to Nyx. She wasn't sure what to say to him.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I've already got the next chapter started. It was going to be a part of this one but I thought Emma and Nyx's conversation ought to be its own thing entirely. As opposed to being swallowed up by all the other emotional things in this chapter.**

 **Not sure if this chapter was the start of Solangelo or not. Maybe. What do you guys think? Keep in mind I'm a horrid romance writer.**


	12. I Knew I Shouldn't Have Told You That

Emma knew she could easily get away with lying to Nyx about what the Ares kids had done. How could he know? He knew so little. Maybe she could convince him it was an accident. And then she remembered she wanted his trust and that was already hard enough to gain without jeopardizing the small amount she already possessed. She knew she had to apologize and be completely honest and hope Nyx would accept it.

"Nyx?"

Nyx turned to face her as much as he could. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Nyx nodded. He didn't need a friend outside of his little pack. "Go away."

Emma didn't want to fall any farther from his good graces so she walked a few steps away and laid down a short distance from Nyx.

Scale was very far from happy. He was going to find Clarisse. He intended to make the message clear that hurting Nyx in any way was not okay!

He walked into the training arena where he saw Clarisse. He walked straight over to her and glared, his dragon-slit eyes locking on her human ones.

"Hey!" Scale yelled.

"Oh look, it's one of the strange new kids," Clarisse's friends laughed. "What do _you_ want?"

"Why did you hurt Nyx?!"

"Oh that little weakling went crying to his bodyguard? How cute. He's an easy target when you aren't around. Deal with it."

Scale started to fume the more Clarisse spoke. He thrust his hands out in front of him and knocked her down as a blue flame came out of his mouth and melted a piece of her chain armor.

"What gives?" Clarisse got up and shoved Scale. Within a few seconds the two were full-on fist fighting.

Someone ran into the arena and began screaming at them.

"Stop! Stop!" at this point Calrisse's armor was covered in burn holes, Scale had a busted lip and nose and they were both fuming. Scale literally.

"Stop it!" It was Will. The two turned to face him. "What are you _doing_?"

"Defending Nyx! Since no one else will."

"I _knew_ I shouldn't have told you who did that."

"Will, you did _what?"_ Clarisse growled. "Wasn't standing on the table, and yelling at us enough?"

Scale looked at Will.

"You didn't tell me that happened."

Will blinked. "It was not important."

Clarisse glared at him. "It might have stopped him from shoving me into the muddy arena floor you _culus_."

Will rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry."

Clarisse stormed out of the arena leaving a string of profanity in her wake.

"What happened to not fighting her?" Will demanded.

"Nyx is my friend. She hurt him."

"Scale, you can't fight everyone that hurts you or_"

"I don't."

"Let me finish. Or your friends. You just _can't."_

He wanted to tell Scale that Clarisse wasn't even the only one who had hurt Nyx but he didn't want to be responsible for the sudden influx of injured demigods.

"I'm going back to my cabin."

Scale left Will standing in the arena slightly past curfew trying to figure out a way to help the mutants.

The next morning Emma woke up and walked over to Nyx. "I'm sorry."

"Leave. Me. Alone."

The fierce glare from the bat-kid weakened Emma's resolve and she decided not to bother him for a little while. When she got to the dining pavilion, Nyx wasn't there.

She saw his friends sitting at their respective tables quietly eating. Scale with Thalia's clear-sighted mortal family. Hoot talking to one of her siblings.

By the end of breakfast, Nyx still hadn't shown up. Emma chased down Hoot and Scale before they left.

"Hey, have you seen Nyx?"

Hoot and Scale gave her wide scared eyes. "No. We were going to ask you," Hoot explained. Emma didn't get another word in before the two raced out of the pavilion and into the woods.

 _That's odd._

Nyx got dressed once other people had begun waking and demanded that Emma leave him alone. There was no way he wanted to eat in the same room let alone at the same table as her. It was easier to only be friends with Hoot and Scale. They always had his back no matter what. If he couldn't see something, they'd tell him about it. Not drag him off to a new place that smelled of antiseptics and disinfectants. They wouldn't question what he was eating or force him into eating something different. And they wouldn't call him a monster if they saw his wings. Emma was no friend of his. Not yet at least. She hadn't earned that trust. She had earned a small amount and lost it by not sticking up for him. At the very least, Scale would always stick up for him.

Instead of going to the pavilion he skipped breakfast and went to their clearing. He didn't need to see to know exactly where it was. He didn't need to feel anything in front of him. Just the softly beaten path that was a mix of capture the flag games and he and his friends routine travels to their place. He sat down on the branch he used for naptime. He was tired. Living in a place where everyone else was diurnal was not a walk in the park for him. He'd never been to the park though so he wasn't sure what that phrase really meant.

He flipped himself upside down on the branch and fell asleep in his normal bat-like positions with his wings wrapped around his front.

Hoot and Scale were slightly worried. At this new place Nyx never seemed to skip breakfast. They figured he may be sleeping since his nocturnal instincts usually overruled his enviorment. They were relieved to seem him hanging upside down on his usual tree branch. They sat down for a minute and then practiced their flying. They skipped all of the lessons they were required to go to. They ignored the conch horn and waited for Nyx to wake up. He woke up a little after the conch horn blew for dinner.

"Hey, ready to go get dinner?" Scale asked his younger friend.

Nyx nodded. When they walked into the pavilion Nyx slid in next to Scale and summoned the food he had eaten from childhood. It wasn't the strange concoction Emma had suggested. It was just plain dog food.

He ate his food quickly and then retreated back into the woods. He had no intentions of speaking to Emma anytime soon.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading: D I would love it if you guys reviewed. I respond with messages. Sorry anonymous reviewers. I'll try my best with the author's note. Okay?**

 **Guest:** _I think there should be Solangelo :3 it'd be a cute little addition to the story._ **Okay. Taking it into consideration. Though I'm not much of a romance author when it comes to fanfiction. Original fiction I write a little better romance I think. Well at least with my own original characters.**

 **Jody Black** : _Add the solangelo definitely! maybe will didn't know if his decisions with the 3 was the best, but Nico could comfort will bc has experience being different like the 3 omg Nico:)_ **I'll work on the Solangelo. That next sentence made no sense so I'm gonna go with "thanks."**

 **Callie Cat:** _I like these:) random question though, can Percy's eyes glow in the datk? That would be owsomnest non lethal super power ever, because it looks cool._ **Thank-you very much. And I don't know. Never thought about it. You can think that if you want, though.**

 **Guest** _ **:**_ _you are a great writer, keep it up!:)_ **Thanks.:D I will.**

 **Sorry. Had a school paper to write. I have another one to write actually so updating should be in a few weeks.**


	13. AFTER

Emma had tried to do the right thing and all it had gotten her was the friend she had been trying to help going out of his way to _avoid_ her. She regretted her decision to tell Nyx the truth. She regretted not having the same amount of guts as Will Solace. He wasn't the coward that sat by and watched a friend get hurt. She was. She sighed and picked up her not quite empty dinner plate and tossed it in with dish bin. She walked to a cabin alone in silence. The silence was different than the silence that befell upon her when she walked places with Nyx. It wasn't intriguingly mysterious. This silence was purely cold. Crisp. If she wasn't in her home it might have sent chills up her spine, raised the hairs on her neck, and scattered her arms with goosebumps.

Emma prepared for bed and was somewhat surprised that Nyx hadn't returned to the cabin just yet. She had agreed to leave him alone and so that is exactly what she did.

Nyx hung alone in the mutants' clearing. It was quiet except for the sounds of nature. A bullfrog's croak here a nocturnal bird of prey's whistle there. The rushing over the river. The sound was polluted by the honks of car horns and sirens. Not that Nyx knew what these things were called. He could hear everything around him. He knew a bird when he heard one. He knew a tree when he felt the branches against the back of his legs. Clarisse was right. He was different. Even Emma hadn't stood up for him. Why had Will? Wasn't that the guy he nearly shot with many arrows? Wasn't that the medic? How could someone who did something he was so scared of defend him? It all confused Nyx. He almost missed the science lab. Everything there was clear-cut and dry. The cramped cages weren't comfortable but they were familiar. He knew his way around the science lab to a decent extent. The experiments weren't pleasant but they were predictable. Run, run, run. Sting, scream, sting. Burn, not see, know. The predictability was comfortable, familiar, easy. Camp Half Blood was none of those things for Nyx.

Camp Half-Blood wasn't painful but it was strange. It was different. He could hardly function here. He knew his way to and from the clearing. He just had to follow the exact same path each time unless he wanted to find himself flat on the ground because of a new obstacle. He could find his cabin with some assistance. Or without any but he would trip over anything that was in his way. He didn't know what to be scared of here. The Ares kids? The Infirmary? Chiron? Mr. D? Dionysus? Emma? Will? Arrows? Everything? Camp Half-Blood was allegedly safe but uncertain. The science lab was torturous but predictable. The science lab was the closest thing to a home he had ever had. The only thing he could remember.

Was Camp Half-Blood really all that much better?

Nyx returned to his cabin well after everyone had started off for breakfast. He made his way to the pavilion and slid in next to Scale. Thalia and her mortal family were at the table.

"Where have you been, young man?" Sally asked.

Nyx's only response was a misplaced glare in her general direction. They ate in an awkward charade of Scale and Nyx making a mess with their disgusting concoction of dog food and the occasional attempt at conversation from Paul, Sally, or Thalia.

Nyx finished his breakfast as quickly as possible and then exited the pavilion without a sound, heading straight toward the clearing. He was tired and no one could tell him he could not nap when his natural clock was telling him he needed to sleep.

Nyx flung himself onto his favorite branch and drifted off to a slumber.

 **A/N: Firstly, I am so sorry. I had lots of school work taking up my writing time. Which led to a bit of a block. I'm not sure if I want to add more of a plot or leave it as is. Toying with the possibility of one(or more) of the mutants being recaptured. Would you, as readers, prefer for that to happen or for it to stay kinda fluffy and Camp-centric?**

 **It's short because I need to know first. And its been sort of difficult to write this.**

 **If you would really like some more of my writing: I have 2 fictionpress accounts. Fantasybookworm2012 which is mostly poetry and older writing from around the 2012 time period. Which is honestly mopey and horrifying from back then. And MiaHominaTelosWrit. Newer and sort of improved.**


	14. Run Bleed Hide Show Run

Nyx continued to sleep on his favorite branch. Scale and Hoot had visited and talked amongst themselves quietly but he didn't wake up until much later in the day.

There was a quiet rustling in the woods just after the conch horn for dinner. Nyx woke up and was groggy.

"Guys, go eat," he mumbled, assuming it was Hoot and Scale.

Nyx got down and unfurled his wings to stretch. A second later the loudest, most bloodcurdling scream echoed across all of Camp Half-Blood.

Everyone in the dining pavilion looked up from their meals and fell silent. Hoot and Scale stood up and ran off to the clearing.

One of the Ares campers was standing in front of Nyx holding a blood covered dagger over him going towards him with it.

His right shoulder was already dripping the same color and consistency of blood as the dagger. Luckily, it was a shallow wound. Not that that made any difference to Scale. He was going to end her.

Scale approached his friend and the girl.

"He's a monster!" she shouted before Scale had a chance to utter a single word.

Scale tackled her as she turned around to stab Nyx again. She was clearly aiming for a more fatal spot this time around. The girl fell flat on her back and the dagger hit the dirt floor next to her. Scale grabbed it and tossed it as far as he could throw it away from her. It landed in the trees surrounding their clearing.

The girl groaned and got up and left the clearing with a glare at the trio. Once she left Scale retrieved the dagger and melted it with a fiery glare then they retreated to Scale's cabin. In the cabin they get the bleeding in Nyx's shoulder to stop. He was a little dizzy from the blood loss but otherwise okay. That didn't stop Scale from allowing his nature to take over.

"I'm going to kill her! Not quickly! Slowly. And painfully. I wonder how she's like it if I called her monster and stabbed her and then killed her after letting her bleed for who knows how long?"

They allowed Scale to rant for a few more minutes before departing to their respective cabins, skipping dinner.

. Nyx didn't want to sit and just stare at a wall in the Hermes cabin so he went for a walk around camp until the conch horn signaling breakfast sounded.

He walked in and sat next to Scale. Hoot noticed this and went to stand up to join her friends.

"I'm going to go sit with Scale and Nyx," she announced to her half siblings. Malcolm touched her shoulder and applied pressure guiding her back into her seat on the wooden bench.

She pulled away from him and tried to block the memories of the science lab from her mind. No such luck. She clenched her eyes tight. She reached out in front of her and hit at the table fighting with it to disappear. She began shaking it. In her mind it was the cage bars she had wanted to escape as far back as she could remember. And even before then, she knew. She was angry. One of her parents was a _goddess_ and she was still trapped in that place for the majority of her life. It's all she knew until Camp Half-Blood. She knew nothing else. She didn't miss it. But she longed for something familiar. She needed to be near Scale and Nyx now.

"Hoot! What's wrong with you?" Malcolm yelled trying to snap her out of it. "Do you know where you are? Who I am? Hoot, answer me."

Scale and Nyx approached the situation and Malcolm scooted down to allow Scale to take his seat next to Hoot. Nyx sat on the other side of her.

"What's wrong with her?" Malcolm asked.

"Nothing," Scale said. "She'll be fine."

He turned back to his friend who was still fighting the Athena table. "Hoot, it's Scale. Can you come back to where you are? Do you know where you are?"

Scale couldn't say another soothing word because Malcolm interrupted saying that he'd already tried that.

"Hoot, you're okay. Turn around. You can stand up. I promise."

With that he gently eased her around and got her onto her feet. She cringed, expecting to hit her head on a rusted metal. When she felt nothing but open air she blinked and looked around. She wasn't where she had thought she was. She was in the dining pavilion of Camp Half-Blood. The only danger she was facing was getting caught in the crossfire of Scale's vengeance towards the Ares campers.

She exhaled and walked over to the table where Thalia, Paul and Sally were sitting. Nyx and Scale tagging behind her. They finished their meal and ignored the two adults glances and questions about Hoot's reaction to what looked to them as a simple gesture.

When they were done eating they exited quickly and reluctantly went to their classes. Nyx went to his archery class and accepted the bow Will handed him. He went to shoot the arrow and it fell on the ground. He pulled back another arrow and winced in pain. His shoulder was still healing from the recent injury.

"Nyx, are you okay?" Will called from close by. He nodded.

"Fine."

He made it through his archery lesson and never even came close to the target. He couldn't see the target and his shoulder hurt. But he would learn how to soot a bow and arrow eventually.

He went to the rest of his classes and went to lunch and sat down with Hoot and Scale at Scale's table.

Nyx winced whenever he moved his shoulder and eventually caved and used the other hand to eat.

"There's this thing called a fork, you know," Thalia said. She knew that none of the mutants would have much, if any, experience with the utensil but handed them each one and told them how to work it.

"Just poke it into your food and then put it in your mouth."

The mutants each took the strange object warily. Scale and Hoot held it at a strange angle but still managed to use it close to properly. Nyx held his fork at a weird angle and went to stab it into his food and instead hit the table and lodged the fork into it.

"Try again," Sally reassured the boy. He yanked the fork out of the wood and went to try again. After a few tries he finally hit his food and managed to get it into his mouth. Every bite he tried to take went like this, a few times his fork landed lodged in the table or on something else. Or on the floor. After he ate about five or six bites this way he discarded the fork and ate with his hands. He could feel where it was that way. And it was just easier for him.

A group of campers approached the table. Amongst them the girl that had stabbed Nyx and Clarisse. Most of the group were from Ares campers but there were a couple of others.

Apparently, the girl that had stabbed him had been spreading the fact that Nyx had bat wings and was a monster around camp. One guy threw a small bat stuffed animal at Nyx. Another camper reached over and picked up his plate and dumped it on his head.

"You are a monster!"

"You don't belong here!"

"Go back to where you came from!"

There were other insults fired at Nyx. No one got to hear any more of them. Scale took a deep breath on Hoot's instruction. That didn't make him any calmer.

"I will _end_ you. All of you!" Scale yelled. Then exhaled a huge breath of fire just over their heads as a warning.

One guy squeaked then ran away back to his table. He was clearly not an Ares camper.

"Go away. Leave Nyx alone."

His falsely calm voice must've lulled the campers back into a false sense of security because they continued firing insults at Nyx and throwing things at him.

"Look at that, Clarisse. The monsters sticking together."

That was the last staw Scale threw out his wings and flapped them. Hoping to actually get off the ground more than a few inches so he'd scare these campers. He did. Not as high as he would've liked but higher about ¾ a foot into the air. He inhaled a lot of air and then exhaled flames and singed a bit of the bullies' hair off.

Everyone began freaking out. This guy had wings and could breathe fire. He was part _dragon_. The Ares campers hadn't been wrong about him being some kind of monster. But he was harmless, it seemed. They were still freaking out regardless.

"What?! How?"

"What are you?!"

Amongst other things were shouted through the pavilion. Hoot shrugged her shoulders and spread her wings since both of the boys had revealed their secret to begin with. She figured her wings would be discovered soon enough, regardless. At the very least the Athena campers would realize she was like her friends within the next couple of days, anyway.

People continued freaking out.

"Chiron!" the girl that had stabbed yelled. "All three of them are monsters. Make them leave!"

Thalia, Will, and Emma just watched as the rest of the campers freaked out. The yelling quickly became too much for the mutants and they retreated to Scale's cabin. They shut to door and locked it.

"What'd we do now?" Nyx asked his two older friends.

"I don't know," Scale admitted.

"I like it here," Nyx told him. "I don't want to leave."

"We have to," Hoot said gently. "We can't stay here. Everyone here knows what we are now. And it's giving me a bad feeling. There's a good chance someone wil tell the scientist where to find us. We leave tonight."

Nyx nodded. "Stay in her tonight," Scale told his friends. "That way no one will hear you leaving your cabins."

They went to their afternoon classes than went back to the cabin. They all took a short nap until nightfall.

After pinning a note saying they were leaving, they walked to the border of Camp Half-Blood. They sighed and exited the barriers of the only place that were ever safe. And then they ran. No money. Little knowledge of the world. And big bulls eyed targets on their backs. They didn't think all of this through. They just ran.

 **A/N: Sorry it took so long. Just couldn't write because I was busy for a little bit. Thanks to KrystalDawner for the idea about someone finding Nyx in the clearing with his wings out and the campers reactions. It was really helpful. I enjoyed what I've read of her story "Arabelle Sauvettere" it's a Twilight and Princess Protection x-over. So far you don't need any Twilight knowledge to understand and enjoy it. So definitely go check that out. It's great!**

 **I really enjoy reading your reviews and getting feedback. So it'd be awesome if you'd review! I try to respond to all of them when I can. Again, super sorry for the wait on this chapter. I'll try to have the next one out soon but I'm not going to make any promises. I have a small idea of where I'm going with the next chapter but if there's anything you really want to see, let me know. That'd be great. Thanks for reading.**


	15. Run Until You Can't

Once the three mutants were out of the pavilion, Thalia, Emma, and Will approached Bella and Clarisse. These two appeared to be the ringleaders of the group that were turning their friends into pariahs.

"Hey, do us a favor and leave them alone!" Thalia yelled at them.

"Yeah. You don't know the first _thing_ about them," Emma echoed the sentiment.

"Leave Nyx alone!"

The four girls looked at him. "Leave Scale alone. Leave Hoot alone." He punctuated. He really was more concerned about Nyx but he knew Nyx would never be happy without his friends.

"Let's go." Thalia told Emma and Will and they left the bullies behind until the next day during breakfast.

* * *

They were on their own. They were simply science subjects at the science lab. They were just _dangerous_ monsters at camp. And outside of that they didn't know what they'd be. They knew next to nothing about the actual world. They didn't belong _anywhere_. And they really had nowhere they could go. Their choices: Turn around then and there and go back to camp or keep going. The trio kept going without any destination in mind.

By the time the sun rose into the very middle of the sky, all three were exhausted and they were a good hundred miles away. And then they spotted their worst nightmares: a small group of people wearing spotless, white lab coats.

They immediately changed the direction they were running and ran in a different direction that the people in white coats seemed to be headed. And until they couldn't see them anymore they ran at full speed. Not the full human speed. The three were pushing 50 miles an hour, a skill that had been honed from countless runs in a maze designed to challenge them more every single day. At least some of their torture was helping them escape repeating it.

This running was unnecessary as they had simply passed a couple of pharmacist on their way to work.

When they finished running they were in a nice wooded area. They walked deeper into the woods and found a tree with very high branches to sleep in or underneath.

"Okay… so how are we going to get up this thing?" Scale asked. "There's nothing near the floor."

"Easy. Our wings!"

Nyx started to laugh. "Hoot, you're forgetting one small thing?"

"Yes?"

"We can barely get off the floor most of the time."

"Then I guess we're sleeping on the ground for now. We can figure it out later."

Nyx sat down on the ground and leaned against the tree trunk quickly falling asleep.

"Hoot, sleep. I'll watch."

The only problem was Scale was exhausted as well. He drifted off to sleep almost an hour into his watch.

* * *

The conch horn signaling breakfast blew and everyone went into the pavilion. After about five minutes Emma, Will, and Thalia started to worry about the absence of three specific demigods.

Chiron trotted in holding a small torn sheet of paper.

"Children, I have some news," he said solemnly. Once he had everyone's attention, he continued. "Nyx, Scale, and Hoot appear to have run away after the little stunt you all pulled yesterday."

"Good riddance!"

"Why should we care if monsters went back to Hades? Or fell into Tartarus! Thank gods!"

"Excuse me, young ladies: But they were _not_ monsters. And if you had simply treated them well and asked them nicely, you might know exactly how hard they've had it. You're all demigods. Which is why I'm sending the both of you on a quest to retrieve them"

The protest from that was strong and immediate.

"No!" cried the two daughters of Ares.

"Why should we have to go get the monsters?" Bella screamed at Chiron.

"They'd probably just kill them!" Will and Thalia yelled. Emma nodded her agreement.

"Which is why they won't be the only ones going. The quest is issued to: Emma Smiths, daughter of Hermes; Bella Guerra, daughter of Ares; Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares; Will Solace, son of Apollo; and Thalia_"

"I accept!" Thalia cut off Chiron. Chiron nodded.

"I, Emma Smiths, daughter of Hermes accept this quest."

Will accepted quickly as well.

" _Fine._ If they're doing it, so am I!" Clarisse grumbled.

"I accept. But don't expect me to be nice to those monsters!" Bella conceded.

The five demigods finished their breakfast and then went to their cabins to get ready for their quest.

A quest that would be like no other in all of demigod history. Five people all issued the same quest and given no clear leader. And the threat wasn't of the mythical kind.

* * *

Scale woke up and blinked, expecting to see trees and a blue sky and have enough room to stand up and run if he wanted or needed to. When his eyes opened the first thing he saw was white. Pure medical grade white. He screamed a loud scream, waking up Hoot and Nyx.

"Sorry." They panicked as well. This wasn't where they had fallen asleep. The solid white told them exactly where they were. And they didn't like it.

They were right back where they had started: the science lab: The science lab they had spent more than a decade being tortured in; the place they had always longed to get out of, and they were right back in it.

And Scale had been the one to fall asleep during his watch.

"I'm so sorry, I must've fallen asleep. I'll get us out of here. Just let me do the talking?"

Hoot and Nyx knew that he meant he wanted them to fade into their cages as much as possible and let him take the brunt of the scientist sick experiments and games.

They weren't going to let him do that this time. He had already done that for over a decade.

"This isn't your fault, Scale. And don't you _dare_ try to take responsibility for everything here. Let the scientist do that. We can handle ourselves now. We aren't the little kids we used to be. Besides, we actually know how to fight back now."

The only problem with that was they were still stuck in their cages. And that left them somewhat at a disadvantage from the scientist that could move around and go wherever they wanted in the building.

 **A/N: I know, I know. Sorry. Here you go. It took me a litt bit to write this and once I did I was rearranging the order of things because they were written and just didn't flow the right way for my taste. I'd really appreciate reviews and suggestions. Some actual feedback would be great!**


	16. Clarisse! Bella! Electricity

"Hoot, Nyx, I'm sorry. This is my fault." Hoot though her friend was lucky she was stuck in a cage at the moment. She was ready to throw something _anything_ at him if he said that phrase or any variant of it again.

She settled for tossing a stone cod glare at him and hitting the door of her cage again. "Open!" she screamed at it. The slumped against the back of the cage again.

"Ow." Her wings were still delicate as they had always been

She hated this cage more than ever now. When it was all she had ever known it wasn't as bad. But she knew there was something else out there now. People that didn't try to hurt them as much. Sure, they thought they were monsters but there had only been one incident of pain caused by any of the demigods at camp.

"Whose turn is it? Who wants to come out for some fun, little mutants?" a cackling voice of a white coated scientist came in. "At least it's fun for _me_."

"Me." Scale said before either of his friends could volunteer or be chosen.

"It's always you isn't it, little dragon?" The scientist was right at the cage door at this point. Scale tried not to flinch. The scientist was so close all Scale could smell was the chemicals on him. "Very well. I hope you've learned your lesson about trying to fight me?"

Scale nodded and the scientist opened the door and grabbed Scales wrist as Scale walked into one of the rooms.

"We're going to see if electricity or fire can harm you And test some endurance."

Scale nodded. He deserved this. He didn't help his friends. He fell asleep when he should've been watching out for their safety. He honestly wished the scientist would hurt him even more. He knew he couldn't actually protect Hoot and Nyx from this the entire time but he wanted to try. The scientist fastened a shock collar around his neck and began pushing the button at some sort of interval. Scale lasted for a while. Maybe an hour and then it went dark. 

* * *

"Clarisse! Bella!" Emma screamed yet again through the door to the Ares cabin. It was locked and even if it wasn't if she went in uninvited she would suffer the wrath of Ares, God of War and al of his children. She did not need that right now. "Come on! We have no idea where they are or who they're with! We need to go find them before they get hurt! Nyx can't even _see_! Clarisse! Bella! Some better open this door in the next few seconds! Or I swear, I'll_"

Clarisse slammed the door open. "You'll what, _princess_?"

"Tell Chiron?"

"I'm sure your precious little Nyx is just fine. He's got that monster dragon thing and whatever from Hades that _girl_ is. That monster dragon thing can breathe fire. I promise you, they're fine. And you can't go on this quest without us. So… we'll leave."

"When?"

"How's next week sound?"

"You said that last week. And the week before that. And the week before that And you get the point. We were given this quest more than two months ago!What if they're dead by now? What if someone is hurting them?"

"I don't particularly _care_." Bella put in.

"Fine. Next week. But if you don't come then I _will_ tell Chiron you're refusing."

"Says Little Miss Monster Sympathizer. Go to Tarturus."

"Ugh!" Emma turned on her heels and headed to the Apollo cabin.

"How'd it go?" Will asked.

"Not well! Apparently, we leave next week. Gods! I can't stand those two!"

"Do we have _any_ idea where they might be?"

Emma nodded. "The only thing we _know_ is that they ran away from here. But is it possible the lab that they escaped from has them?

Thalia and Will's eyes snapped. Will jumped off his bed. And ran out the door straight into the wooden door of the Ares' cabin. "Ow."

"Clarisse! Bella! Let's go! Right now! It's important! Scale, Hoot, and Nyx might be in much more danger than we thought! Now I mean it! Let's go!"

Bella opened the door this time.

"We already told your little friend that we would leave next week. So just relax. I'm sure they're just fine. And if they aren't, well monsters don't belong at Camp Half-Blood, understood?"

Will clenched his fist. He was a son of Apollo. He healed people but hurting these two seemed like a wonderful idea.

"You. Are. The. Monsters. If you knew what they'd been through, what they could be going through right now, you would know how heinous it is for you to be putting off going and helping them. So I don't care if I have to handcuff you into the cab or whatever. You are going to pack your bags this second and meet me, Thalia, and Emma at Thalia's tree in the next five minutes whether you like it or not. Do you hear me!" by the end of this Will was screaming.

"Loud and clear. Still not coming."

"NOW!"

Will glared as they packed their bags and they walked out. Will stopped by his cabin to retrieve his things and tell everyone it was time to go.

And they headed out. 

* * *

Scale came to in his cage.

"Scale, are you okay?" Hoot asked.

Scaled nodded. "I'm fine."

"Scale, if you keep taking all of the test you are going to _die._ Please stop. For me. For Hoot. For you."

"It's my fault we're here. I deserve it."

"You're going to let me and Hoot take some of the test. We were just fine when we were younger. You need to take a break from this. Don't let you get hurt so much."

Scale nodded. "Ok."

"I know you won't do it. So don't make me have to tell them to do all the test on me," Hoot threatened. "And yeah, I know about that."

"Fine. Don't you dare."

The door opened. "Time for food all you little freaks."

Cages were opened and closed quickly and bowls of dog food were given to each one of the the 10-15 experiments in the room.

"You like your job?" one of the newer mutants yelled.

"I'm allowed to do whatever I want to little mutant freaks like you, I don't like my job I love it. And since I'm having a bad day how about you eat and then come with me. I wouldn't mind putting a shock collar on someone with a mouth like yours." He walked over and open the cage then hit her.  
"Don't. Talk. Back. To. Me. Understood?" the girl glared at him.

"Are you aware kidnapping is a criminal offense? As is child abuse. And the entire set up of this lab that test on humans without the consent of them or their parents or guardians. Can I borrow your phone?"

"For what?"

"No reason, just want to show you the law written down."

"Eat your food, freak." he said after hitting her again. "Don't worry, the law won't hurt us."

And he left.

"What _is_ this?" she asked once she was gone.

"Not sure," Scale said. "You're new, huh?"

"Yeah. My name's Lilly. I'm 15. I was babysitting and I woke up here. What about you guys?"

"Scale, not sure how old I am. Or how to count. I've lived here for my entire life. We escaped but we got dragged back here."

"So it's possible to escape?"

Scale nodded. "We had help. Not so sure we'll get so lucky this time."

"Hoot."

"Nyx."

"Any tips to make this Hell bearable?"

Scaled nodded. "Don't talk back to the scientist so much. They can and will hurt you in any way they can."

"So what did they turn you into?" Hoot asked.

"I'm not sure. Nothing seems to have happened yet. Maybe it's some kind of delayed reaction?"

Scale nodded.

"What about you guys?"

"We'll just show you our wings as much as we can." Hoot suggested.

" _Wings_! Did that hurt to grow?"

"We were born with them, as far as I know. I don't remember growing them. And I remember _everything_." Hoot told her.

"Everything?"

Hoot nodded.

"How do you ever sleep?"

"Practice."

"Sorry. So should I be worried about the guy that fed us coming back?"

Scale nodded.

"Not until tomorrow though. They usually only do test on people that sleep during the day at night."

"Why would you sleep during the day?"

"Because your body makes you. Nyx is part bat so he sleeps during the day a lot."

Nyx nodded. "Yeah."

"Thanks. Does it help to make friends here?"

Scale nodded. "Don't get too attached though because you don't know what'll happen." Hoot added.

"Do people die here?"

Scale nodded. "The scientist don't care. We're objects to use and throw away to them."

"Oh. I'm going to try to get some sleep. Good night."

"G'night" Nyx tossed at all of the other mutants in the room.

 **A/N: Thanks again to Krysta Dawner for the inspiration for this chapter.(and the next) Does anyone actually want the quest written out or can I skip that part? Not good at writing quest.**


	17. Chapter 17

"I'm hungry, let's stop there." Bella said pointing to a restaurant with a line of the door and seeping into the road.

"No." Will said. They'd been postponing actually looking for the mutant trio the entire time of this quest. Stopping for food. Stopping for souvenirs. Even stopping to go to a gods damned amusement park! "We're on a quest and I'm sick of you avoiding the quest!"

"Yeah!" Emma chimed in. "We can't tell you why this quest is so important but trust me you'll regret it if we don't find them soon."

Clarisse and Bella did not seem convinced. But they did settle for stopping at the faster available restaurant for food.

=============••========••======••

"I mean at least they don't let us go hungry," Lilly muttered shortly after the scientist had left the room after putting food in all of the cages.

"They would," Nyx growled. "If they didn't need their precious little freaks."

He was barely touching his food but he was getting restless. It had been months. No one from camp was coming for them. He'd thought he might've been able to trust some of those people. But he couldn't. All anyone ever did was hurt him. His entire life. Only hurt. He couldn't think of one fond memory. He strained his brain. His first steps he'd been hooked up to wires for. His first words were stamped out with a pronged shock collar. Hell the first time he tried pizza, was when he was almost 14. And he didn't like it because he was used to dog food. Yeah, his childhood had been one of the worst of the worst. But at least they weren't starving them?! What kind of justification was that. And as it was he couldn't help but agree with the new experiment. Things could have been worse. So much worse. He should be thinking whatever gods that be that he had survived this long. And yet he was angry. Angry at everything around him. Especially at his parents for just leaving him here. He knew his godly parent whoever it was could see what was happening in the mortal plain. So why in gods' names did they let him and his friends suffer like this?

=====••=======••======••=====••=••

"So, do we have any idea where they might be?" Thalia asked.

"I have an idea! We need to find a computer though." Emma told her.

"Library?" Will suggested. The three nodded.

"I have a better idea," Bella. "How about we just. Go. Home"

The three ignored them and headed off to the nearest library.

Emma opened the Internet on a computer and typed "human experiments in the last 20 years."

"Got something!" Emma shouted. Thalia and Will looked at her expectantly.

"Well? Get on with it!"

"A scientist by the name of Jeb Batchedler was arrested for a few counts of kidnapping and child abuse and his defense was 'it was for science.' He used to work for a company known as ITEX in Death Valley, California. There was no confirmation when it was investigated but some people believe his former colleagues have continued cruel experiments on human children since his arrest. People have egged and otherwise threatens the company prompting them to rebrand as a family company known as With Love Cleaners. The HQ is at the same place in Death Valley, California.!"

"I don't think that's where we should be looking," Clareisse rolled her eyes.

"Trust me." Emma stated. "It is. Let's go."

They ran out the library and got to the bus stop. Waited. And waited.

"5 to this adress in California, Death Valley." Emma said handing the driver a piece of paper.

"Ok." They paid and got seats on the bus.

"This is ridiculous!" Bella yelled. The other passengers turned.

Emma waved them off.

It took days to get to California. And they still had a ways to go before getting to Death Valley.

===•••••=====••==••==••=•+==¥

A/N: I apologize for the delay in updating. My computer kind of gave out on me and I have been having to use my phone for LITTERALLY everything. Plus just have been a bit busy. Please review with thoughts/suggestions.

Question of the Chapter: what's your favorite species of bird.(pet wise.)


	18. Chapter 18

Wake. Eat. Hurt. Try to sleep. Repeat. Repeat. Wake. Eat. Hurt. Try to sleep. Repeat. Repeat. That was what their life has come to. Again. Somehow knowing there was something more made it that much worse. Knowing that there was something wrong made this worse. Even if he still thought he deserved it. It was worse knowing that this treatment wasn't entirely okay made it worse. He hit his hand against the bar again. "Damnit!" And then his eyes watered. Tears. He had fallen asleep. That's why they were back here. He wished the scientist would just put him out of his misery, but then who would protect his friends? Or the other experiments? By far he was the most frequently tested on. Not because he was unique but because he asked them to do the test on him instead. Sometimes they obliged. Others, they didn't and made him watch as they hurt Hoot or Nyx. He hated it here. He wanted out. But there was no way out. Miracles only happen once. And that miracle wasn't that much of a blessing at all.

=====•••===••===••==••===••==••==•=

"Welcome to Death Valley," the bus driver graveled out. "Not 'zactly the kinda place you kids should be messin' in. Good luck."

They exited the bus and started walking straight towards the giant white building. The bus driver was right. This was not the kind of place they should be bothering with.

"Maybe we should just go, this might lead to Tarturus." Bella said. "We don't want the monsters anyway!"

Will turned and hissed "If this is what we think it is, you're going to regret those words! Now...come on."

Clarisse and Bella followed him towards the front of the building. Unguarded. They walked right in, and it was quiet.

The hallway was empty. Sterile. There was one poster, a picture of a baby and a needle with wings protruding out of the back. No words other than For Scientific Discovery.

"Will," Emma "how're we going to find them even if they are here?"

"We'll look into each door. There can't be more than a dozen on this hallway."

They walked. They opened a door with a half dozen cages. The door was labeled "small lizards." They entered. A little girl with almost hollow eyes. She was shivering. And wearing a shock collar that kept going off because the movements of her shivers. A little boy huddled in a corner of the cage next to her trying desperately to console her.

"They're not in here." Emma said. Bella and Calrisse turned for the door.

"We need to help these kids."

Emma nodded at Will. And the two of them bent down in front of the two cages that had kids in them.

The little girl bolted to the back of her cage immediately and shook.

"It's okay," Will told her. "We're not going to hurt you. If you don't want me to I won't even come near. Just let me open the cage? I want to help you out of here. Can you talk?" The little girl made no sound and pointed to the collar on her neck. It must've been preventing her from speaking.

"I'm going to open the cage now, is that okay?" The little girl was still quivering from fear but didn't make any move to stop him. Will placed a hand on the cage door, he opened it and stepped away. "Can you come out on your own?"

The little girl stayed where she was.

"She's scared," Emma whispered to him. "Try offering her food, she might come out that way."

Will quietly grabbed a cookie out of his back pack. He remained kneeling the entire time. Any sudden movements and any chance they had off getting her out of the cage were done. He held it out in front of her. She took it and watched him a she ate.

"Will you come out, please?" The little girl crawled out and sat down right in front of her cage and continued eating. "Thank-you. Can I take that off?" He pointed at the collar. She didn't respond. He reached over and grabbed the fastner gently unfastened it. She flinched but let him remove the collar.

"Thank-you. Good job. I'm gonna help your friend now, okay? This is Emma, she's gonna sit with you for a minute." Emma crawled on the ground and sat in front of the little girl. Where she could see her.

Will placed a hand on the boys cage. He looked much older. "Is it okay if I open this?" He asked gently. The boy nodded. "It'll never work. I've tried."

Will unlatched the door and opened it. "Can you come out?" The boy nodded. Will was suprised at how unafraid he seemed. He decided now was not the time to ask.

"Okay, little one can you walk?" Emma asked. The little girl nodded and stood up. She shook a little at first but could walk just fine. Was a little slow at it but they had no idea how long or how often she was in that cage and they knew it was not going to end well if any of them tried to carry her.

The little girl followed sticking close to will and being wary of everything around her.

They walked out where Thalia had been distracting Bella and Clarisse.

"No!" Clarisse hissed. "We're not taking little kids with us."

They both flinched. The little girl pressed herself against Will and closed her eyes. "You're okay, little one. She's just tired. It was a really long trip to get here, okay?" The little girl bobbed her head. She couldn't nod compleltly because the shock collar had damaged the bone on the back of her neck that assisted with that. Will knew she'd need some kind of neck brace to fix it and had no clue how he was going to convince a young child that wore something so painful around her neck for that long to wear one. Maybe a few thousand cookies would do the trick.

"They're coming with us. You didn't go in you don't understand what's happened. The next room, I'll show you. As long as you're quiet."

"Come on," Emma said. And they walked to the next room. Inside they saw stacks and stacks of cages. All empty. Must've been a store room of some kind.

The next one they saw a baby screaming her lungs out. They didn't walk in they saw a man in a white coat hitting her every time she cried. And she's just cry louder. Clareisse jaw dropped. "Is this what you found?"

Will shook his head and whispered "the little girl was wearing a shock collar. Shaking from it. And so scared to come out I had to give her food to get her to even come to the front of her cage."

"I thought we were looking for the kids that came to camp" Bella whispered.

"We are. This is where they grew up. The wings, from scientific experimentation. Illegal and sometimes fatal." Will told her.

Bella immediately froze. "We made them come back here?"

Will nodded.

"I feel awful. " Bella told him. Clarisse nodded in agreement. "What can we do?"

"We're going to get all of the kids we can find out of here. And report it to the authorities. And we're going to help them."

Clarisse nodded. "Someone has to distract that guy." She said.

The boy piped up then "he'll leave if you just wait. But he might see us if w keep standing here."

"Hi, what's your name?" Bella asked.

"Kal. I'm 15. Been here since I was 10. That little girl is about 5. She's been here her entire life. She doesn't have a name. And she's had that collar on for so long I'm not sue if she can speak. I've never heard her talk. "

Will nodded. Let's look in te next room. "Come on,little one."

They walked quietly to the next room. Cages. They entered. There were 4 cages. One was empty. The other three, hoot, Nyx, and a girl that looked to be about how 16.

Hoot looked up and mumbled "no more. Please. Please stop." She rattled the cage bars. Nothing happened. "Hoot, it's not one of the scientist. It's a couple of kids. My age. And a little girl."

Hoot looked over. "Hey, Hoot," Will said. "Where's Scale?"

"Not here. Being tested on, probably. He'll be back later. It doesn't matter."

"We're getting you guys out of here." Emma told her.

"Why?" She snapped "you think we're monsters!"

"I most certainly do not." Emma told her. "Please let us help you. You could die if you don't!"

Little one flinched closer to Will.

"Fine. Hide. Scientist is coming." They bolted for the closet and stood inside. The little girl sat down on the floor and began rattling like a leaf.

The door opened. "Freak, next time you'll listen!" They heard someone yell. Then they heard the sound of skin on tile. Then they heard the sound of someone being hit with some kind of object. It went one for a few minutes. Then the outer door closed and they heard Hoot call for them to come out. Scale was back in the cage with his wing looking broken.

"Scale, what happened?" Hoot asked.

"I couldn't do it. I couldn't fly enough for them."

Scale turned and had his back to everyone.

Will looked at them "we're getting you guys out of here."

"Who?" Nyx asked.

"All of the kids here."

Hoot shook her head "It'll never work. You'll get caught if you try to do it all at once."

Emma nodded "what if we didn't? What if we went back and forth. I have an idea. First we need to get you guys out of here without setting off the alarms."

A/N: I apologize for any mistakes, still typing things out using the notepad app on my phone. Which is fine just makes editing more difficult/takes longer. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I have a few ideas just not sure which path'll go down. However I DO need a name for "little one." The little girl that's taken to Will. Keep in mind someone from camp will be naming her. So...yes. Name ideas please. Review with your thoughts.:) Thanks! Also can't continue until I have a name for "little one."


	19. Chapter 19

"Are we sure about this, you guys?" Will asked "it goes wrong and we have all kinds of problems"

"You have a better idea?" Clarisse snapped

Will shook his head. Clarisse was lashing out. She clearly felt guilty about calling these kids monsters when the monsters were the ones who created them. Who did this to them. Who disguised themselves as anything other than what they were. Evil.

"Ok then I guess we're doing this."

Thalia and snuck out and gotten white coats for the demigods on the quest. "Think they'll buy this?" Emma

"Hope so," Will said.

"Next question:" Bella added "how are we supposed to find all of the kids. Or know how many are here."

"There's about 20 kids here," Kal said.

Little One was still pressed against Will's side at this point. "Little One, can you let go for just a second."

She let go of Will but didn't move away. Thalia handed him a white coat and he put it on. Little One looked at him the darted across the room as fast as her little and weak legs would allow her to and cowered in the corner.

She started shaking.

"Damnit." Will whispered. "None of these kids will trust us if we're dressed like this. We're gonna have to take our chances walking around in our normal clothes."

Will took off the cost crumpled it and threw it away and walked over to Little One.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you, I promise."

She kept shaking. He pulled out another cookie. "Here. Will you please come with me? I won't hurt you."

Little One did a little head bob that Will took as her version of a nod.

"Alright, let's go" Will said and they walked out of the room in he next room they found a few teenagers, the next they found toddlers. Some kids had it worse than others. Some were so broken they wouldn't talk to Will they just kinda came out of the cage when it opened. Others were so terrified Will had to bribe them.

"I'm gonna need a bakery to get any of these kids to let me check them out medically." Will whispered at one point.

Once they found all of the kids they left. First stop the nearest precinct.

They walked in. Will took the lead

"I need to talk to an officer about an illegal human experimentation ring and child abuse cases."

"What's with all the kids"

"We rescued them."

"Do their parents or guardian know you have them?"

Will shook his head. "No but I have a good reason let me explai."

"What's your name?"

"Will Solace."

"Will Solace you are under arrest for roughly 20 charges of kidnappin. You have the right to remain silent anything you say can and will be used against you Ina court of

"Officers escort everyone to interview rooms, please."

Little One tried to follow Will closely. "It's okay Little One," Will said. "I'll be right back, ok?"

She bobbed her head.

"She's hurt," one of the officers shouted. Causing most of the kids in the squad room to flinch. How dare you harm a child?"

Will sat in the interview room face to face with the officers.

"So what? Did it for thrills? What I don't get is why you'd kidnap a bunch of kids and bring them to a police station."

"They were being tortured. Kept in cages. Beaten. Starved. That little girl that I was talking to has been wearing a shock collar so long she can't speak and probably will need a neck brace. And to get her to so much as come out of her cage I had to beg with her and bribe her out. Like a feral animal. I'd never do that to a child. I was rescuing them."

"How'd you know they were there."

"The people that were holding them there had taken some friends of mine. The place is filled with human experimentation. And I took them to help them. Please don't make these kids suffer more than they already have."

"Fine. You're free to go. But don't leave the state."

"Slight problem."

"What?"

"I live in New York."

"Can you be back here for witness if we choose to file a case against the alleged child experimenters?"

"Absolutely. On one condition"

"I get to take the kids with me. I have a safe place ready for them and I don't want them bouncing from place to place. And they have so many issues. I have professionals on call to help with those issues."

The officer nodded. "Fine. I'll get you guys a police escort home. But don't come back here unless we ask."

"Deal."

When Will into the room where they were holding the kids Little One ran over to him and pressed against his side still shivering. This was the most unfamiliar thing she's encountered.

They headed back to camp with the police escort they'd been promised and walked into Camp Half Blood once the officers had left they high tailed it for Chiron.

"You're back. Looks like you brought more kids, that wasn't the quest."

"We couldn't just leave them there!"Bella shouted. "These kids are innocent. Not monsters."

"Well done. Maybe that was the quest"

Will gaped. Had that been Chirons plan all along? To get Clarisse and Bella to see that not everything was as cut and dry as it seemed.

"These kids are staying here. If I have to take care of them myself, then so be it but they have no one else as far as we know we need to help them."

Chiron nodded "All right then does the Hermes cabin work for now we'll build them their own space in a few days the big house is complete and there's lots of rooms there."

Will nodded. Will knew this would be hard but he was in it for the long haul.

A/N: ok so question do you want me to just end it here? Or continue with the next few weeks/month of them helping and dealing with all the kids hanging around camp?


	20. Chapter 20

Will thought the Hermes cabin would work. He was wrong. Apparently exposing kids who were used to being in cages around maybe a few other people to a large, crowded space filled with strangers didn't go over so well. Little One refused to leave Will's side anyway.

So she stayed in his cabin.

"Dude, how're you gonna do your job?" One of his siblings asked as Little One was sitting on the floor next to him.

"Uhhh I have no idea. All of these kids need help and I have no clue how to give it to them." Will was quiet even though he wanted to yell at the top of his lungs.

Little One just sat quietly. She didn't really know what else to do. All she knew was pain and this guy rescued her from it she didn't know what to do with herself.

Emma walked into the cabin.

"The big house is ready, Chiron wants us to come talk to him for a minute."

Will nodded and stood up. Little One looked startled for a second, as if Will was going to leave her.

"Come on Little One, you can come with us."

She bobbed her head, stood up, and pressed herself against Will's side.

"I think you have a shadow," Emma told him. "Are we just gonna keep calling her Little One or?"

"I haven't settled on a name yet."

They walked into the Big House

"So feel free to explore and tell me what additions we need." Chiron addressed the people there.

They nodded.

"Make sure there's no locks on any of the doors. They're so used to being cages it may frighten them," Bella said.

Will was shocked that Bella realized this or even cared. "And some of these kids don't even have names."

Bella seemed to be getting angry. "I swear I'll kill those scientist!" Bella shouted that last part and knocked over a chair. Little One made a raspy squeal and started shaking then ducked behind Will.

Will turned around to face her and started talking softly. "It's okay. It's okay you're Akiko, innocent. Bella isn't mad at you. She's mad at the person that hurt you. That's your name now: Akiko. Okay? Akiko Solace."

Bella bent down "I'm sorry, Akiko. I didn't mean to scare you."

Akiko bobbed her head but didn't release Will. Bella realized she would have to earn Akiko's trust on her own and it wouldn't be a fast process.

"So is the paint okay?" Chiron directed at the demigods.

"Yes. Just avoid white and we should be fine but we don't know what they may be scared of we'll have to find out by trisl and error," Will answered. Akiko was still clutching to his camp shirt like her life depended on it. Will had no clue how he planned to get her to live in the Big House unless he moved in there too.

"Okay Akiko, we're gonna go back outside now, alright?"

She nodded and followed him never letting go of Will.

Bella and Clarisse sat outside the Ares cabin and sighed. "We have got to make it up to those kids somehow," Clarisse told her half-sister. Bella agreed.

"How're we going to do that?"

"Let's just try to protect them. That's what these kids need now. They need a friend."

Bella saw Hoot, Nyx, and Scale sitting at the edge of the woods and decided to approach them.

"Go away. You hurt Nyx," Scale growled.

"I just wanted to apologize about that. I'm sorry."

Scale's eyes flashed and anger and Bella sighed and walked away wishing she had never hurt the little bat kid because he had already been through way too much. She vowed then and there to protect all of the mutant kids and earn all of their trust. She didn't realize how difficult that would be.


	21. Akiko Communicate

They finished the walk-through of the big house and Will sighed.

"Can we make the doors to where they'll be able to operate them however they want? If they want it open they can if they don't they can leave it open. So extra light doors that hook onto something on the wall would work."

Chiron nodded "Certainly. How're you going to get your shadow to live in here without you?"

Will shrugged his shoulders. The sudden movement startled Akiko.

"Sorry, Akiko. I was just moving. Do you want to try it?"

She looked wary but bobbed her head. Will gently eased her grasped hand away from his clothes and turned to face her and shruggd his shoulders. "Now you try."

She bobbed her head and mirrored his action. He realized this would be a great way to enable the young girl to have some form of communication other than just bobbing her head yes all of the time. That's how we say 'I don't know.'Or 'maybe.'Okay?"

Will handed her a cookie.

Akiko bobbed her head. Will did the motion she was doing and said "That means 'yes.' Okay? Can you tell me 'yes'?"

Akiko bobbed her head. "Good job. Here's a cookie."

"Can you move your head like this?" Will shook his head. Akiko tried to mirror it but it wasn't great or very defined at all.

"That's okay. We can try something else. Can you hold out your hand and shake it like this?" Will put his hand in front of his face and moved his hand from side to side.

Akiko bobbed her head and then tried the new motion. It worked.

"So that means 'no' can you tell me 'no'?"

Akiko moved her hand in front of her face side to side. Will gave her a cookie.

"Can you do this?" He touched his stomach.

Akiko bobbed her head and mimicked the motion. "That means food. Okay? Can you ask me for food?"

Akiko touched her stomach. And Will gave her the cookie and said "this is a cookie. Do you like them?"

She bobbed her head.

"Okay. One more. Can you do this?" He touched his mouth with his hand.

Akiko mimicked the action. "Awesome. That means drink. Can you ask me for a drink?"

Akiko bobbed her head and did the motion. Will handed her an opened bottle of water and she tried to lick it. She was confused now. "Oh you don't know how to? I'll show you." Will grabbed his own bottle and showed her how to drink out of it. Akiko mimicked the action and made a mess but did drink the water.

Will wanted to do more but knew that this was probably as many as she could handle right now. This method of having her mimic his actions worked with Akiko but might not work for all of the kids

"Okay very good job. What do you want to do know?" She pulled his shirt and pointed at the door. She wanted to leave.

"You want to leave the building? She bobbed her head.

"Okay. Let's go." Once they were outside Will told her to show him where to go. She walked never letting go of his shirt. When she saw Will's cabin she pointed at the door. And pulled him along. The door was too heavy for her. Will pushed it open and sat on his bed. Akiko sat in the floor and watched him.

"Her name's Akiko." Will announced to his siblings. "She can't speak but we're working on ways for her to communicate. She learned a few signals earlier."

He ran brought the signals cod everyone quickly. The conch horn blew and Akiko jumped startled.

"Are you okay?" Will asked.

She bobbed her head.

"Just startled?"

She bobbed her head.

"Do you want to go eat? Do you want food?"

Akiko touched her stomach and then bobbed her head she wasn't sure which to say.

"Okay. Let's go eat."

The pavilion was far too crowded for the easily frightened mutants so the big house had a dining hall just for them. That particular dining hall was a mess during meal times to say the least. Some wouldn't use utensils. Others had issues seeing the food or would startle somersault that the food would wind up being dropped. Since Akiko refused to leave Will's side he ate with them.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: is anyone even still reading this besides the two people I know are. They know who they are. Please review.:)

Emma hadn't really seen Nyx around camp much since he had gotten back. She knew he was probably just scared but she wanted to make sure he was okay. Trying to find one person in a large camp of several hundred people wasn't exactly easy.

She spotted Hoot walking towards the clearing in the woods.

"Hoot!" Hoot jumped but turned around. "Sorry. Have you seen Nyx?"

Hoot nodded. "He's probably asleep. It's broad daylight."

"I don't know where he sleeps..." Emma explained.

Hoot nodded and shrugged then started walking.

"Can you tell me?" Emma asked running to keep up with the owl hybrid.

"No. What'd you need him for?"

"I wanted to see if he was okay. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. We're fine. I want to go practice flying now."

"Can I come?"

"No."

Emma sighed and headed back towards the main part of camp and to the Apollo cabin. She knocked. "It's Emma. Will you in there?"

Will stood up and Akiko jumped from her spot on the ground.

"Akiko, I'm coming right back. I promise. Here," he handed her a cookie and then walked to the door. She stayed standing in the spot he had left her and ate the cookie the whole time watching him. He walked back to his bed and sat down once he let Emma in.

"That was awesome Akiko, thank you for staying."

Emma raised an eyebrow.

"You've been eating with her this entire time, haven't you?"

Will nodded. "The pavilion is too crowded and I need to be near her or she gets confused and frightened."

"Okay. Have you seen Nyx?"

"Yeah he's been coming to meal times."

"Does he seem okay?"

"Same Nyx that was here before he ran away. He wasn't okay before, Emma. You know a small fraction of what these kids have been through. You see how Akiko is and she was only there five years. Nyx, Hoot, and Scale were there for over a decade. It'll take time."

"And an on site bakery apparently Emma said looking at the cookie Akiko was still working on finishing."

"It's almost done being built."

Emma laughed. "You're joking right?"

Will shook his head.

"Eat did you think the building next to the big house was? A storage unit?"

"I thought it was a small hospital!"

Akiko jumped and threw the cookie down. She darted her eyes back and forth and then bolted for the door. Emma had left it wide open. Her weak legs could carry her enough so she ran awkwardly but she ran.

Will jumped up from his bed and started running after her. He caught up with her near immediately. She had ran as far as she could then saw the picnic tables in the pavilion as a place to shelter herself. She hid under one.

"Akiko please come out." She looked at him but didn't respond.

"Please." She shook her hand in front of her face. 'No.'

"I won't hurt you. You know I won't. Will you come out for a cookie?"

She looked at him apparently thinking about it. She shook her hand in front of her face. 'No.'

"Please?"

Akiko again told him 'No.'

"Fine if you're not coming out, in coming in, okay?"

Will tried and hit his head.

"Never mind I can't fit under there. Ow." Will sighed. How could he get her out from under the table before the pavilion was so overcrowded she wouldn't be able to move. The conch horn blew. Too late. A steady stream of demigods started pulling in. The Athena campers looked at Will hunched next to their table with questioning looks.

"What are you doing?" Malcolm asked.

"Trying to get Akiko to come out from under the table."

Akiko didn't budge.

"Who?"

"One of the kids we rescued. She's like 5 and can't speak and she got frightened and hid here."

Will sighed.

"Akiko, please?" He pulled out a cookie and held it out for her. She came to the edge of the opening on the table.k

Will backed up ever so slightly and Akiko followed. Once she was out from under there he handed her the cookie. "Thank-you."

"Now let's go get some actual food. Okay?"

Akiko bobbed her head 'yes.'

They walked to the big houses dining hall. They say and are. Will wasn't looking forward to the medical exams he was going to have to do on these kids. They'd only been there a few days and he knew only one of them came close to trusting him. He didn't want to hurt or scare any of the kids. But he had no choice but to do the latter.

A/N: A friend of

mine recently started posting on here. Go read and review her story at Inglorious_Machina.


	23. Chapter 23

Will lay in the bottom bunk all night tossing and turning. He didn't want to do what he had to do. There had to be a better way then giving kids who'd already been through enough yet another reason not to trust him. He wondered if he could get one of his siblings to do it. No that was the cowards way out. Akiko was going to hate him. He didn't think this through. He definitely wouldn't take them into the infirmary for the exam that would end any hope of things going well immediately.

Will got up and waited patiently for Akiko.

"Are you hungry?"

Akiko bobbed her head and they walked to the dining hall in The Big House, akiko, clutching Will's camp shirt the entire time. She let go once they were both in their seats but she watched him, as if she were scared he would leave her after her attempt at running away from him the previous day.

"Akiko I need to go speak to Chiron, I will be right back, okay?"

Akiko looked wary and grabbed onto Will's shirt.

"I promise, I'll be right back, okay?"

Akiko bobbed her head slower then normal. An uncertain yes. But still a yes. She let go of Will's shirt.

Will stood up and walked away over to Chiron's office down the stairs.

"Will, come in, can I help you?"

Will nodded. "How're we supposed to give these kids medical attention? It'll just frighten them! And they'll never trust me."

"Just try. You never know. Maybe they will. That one little girl seems to trust you already!"

Will ran back upstairs and sat next to Akiko who was staring at her food.

"Aren't you hungry?" She bobbed her head.

"Were you waiting for me?" Akiko bobbed her head.

Will took his pointer finger and tapped the wrist opposite to it. "That's how you say "wait" okay?"

Akiko mimicked him and he smiled. He was so angry at himself for what he was going to have to do to Akiko and the other mutants.

======•••===================••=

Will paced back in forth Akiko was still sitting in the floor of his cabin. He was still tempted to get someone else to do this but he at least had a semblance of a basis for trust that none of his siblings had yet. As if to prove his point for him Akiko ducked behind Will as one of the other Apollo campers walked in.

"It's okay. That's just my brother. He won't hurt you."

Akiko bobbed her head but shrunk farther back into the bed she'd been leaning against.

Will sighed internally.

"Okay, I have to do something. Do you want to stay here?"

Akiko waved her hand in front of her face rapidly. As if she were yelling 'No!'

"Okay, okay. You can come with me," Will resigned. He was hoping to have at least another hour of her unwavering trust, but no such luck.

Will took Ina deep breath and started walking towards the infirmary. He was hoping Akiko would be fine. He doubted it. Maybe someone could watch her for just q few minutes? Yeah. She didn't hate Emma, right? No Emma had frightened her already. Bella? Nope. Clarisse? No. There was no one to watch this kid. He saw one of his siblings.

"Hey, I need a favor." Will told his half sibling.

"What?"

"Watch Akiko for me."

His sibling's eyes widened.

Will squatted down to Akiko's level.

"I'll be right back this is my brother, okay?"

Akiko nervously bobbed her head.

Will headed for the infirmary. He didn't want to do this, but he had to. He exhaled one last sigh and got to work.

"Damnit" the curse was caused by his fear for what was to come. These kids had been through so much already, and he was about to be the one to cause them more pain.

 **A/N: sorry sorry. Been busy with college, my bad. I'll try to update more when I can. But for now hope you enjoyed please review. Seriously I'm kinda stuck let me know what you like what you dislike if you've got a better idea than word vomiting until I have a Eureka! moment. Thanks.:)**


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